3*»iao 



/ 1 



American Social .Science Association, 



THE 



HEALTH OF SCHOOLS: 



PAPERS 



READ BEFORE THE AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATIO^f, 
AT DETROIT, MAY, 1875. 



REmiNTED FROM "THE JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE," No. VUL 



PUnLTSHED FOR THE 

AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATIOK 
By a. WILLIAMS .& CO., 

283 Washington St., Boston. 

also fou sale bv 

O. 1'. PUTNAM'S SONS, NEW YORK. ROBERT CLARKE ic CO., CINCINNATI. 

PORTER & COATES, PHILADELPHIA. 

187G. 



Franklin Press': Rand, Avert/, 5f Co., Boston. 



/ 



CIRCULAR. 



In sending one of the recent publications of tbe Ameiucan Social Scienck 
Association to libraries, and to persons not yet nii nibeis, -we would again 
express a sense of the success and importance of its work. Our list of mem- 
bers comprises names in nearly all parts of the United States, and forms a 
bond of connection for all who are interested in political and social advance- 
ment. The other principal means oi action throughout the <oui try are either 
political in the paity sense, or commercial ; both being subjtct to bias fiora 
private interest. The need of an organization animated solely by a desiie for 
the public welfare was never greater than now. 

It is evident, that never before in the history of our country has so much 
attention been given to the investigation and comprehension of the principles 
which underlie human society, and the ^application of which tends to ameliorate 
the condition of mankind. To concentrate these investigations, and to bring 
into association kindred minds working upon kindred subjects, and in this 
way draw to a focus the lines of action and influence now separate, possibly 
divergent, is the purpose of our Association, rather than the advocacy of any 
theory or any formula of administration. TJiis work the American Social 
Science Association entered upon ten years ago, and has prosecuted with 
some degree of success; but to extend its spheie, and make its i-esults truly 
national, a larger co-operation is now most desirable. 

To aid in this woik, the assistance of all persons interested in any of the 
departments of Social Science is solicited, at least to the extent of annual 
membership. The inducement which we offer is. primarily and chiefly, that 
which has moved others in sustaining- the Association hitherto, — namely, the 
satisfaction of promoting a work whi( h has now become ncctssary, ? nd (he in- 
fluence of which, in some form, aflfects the material interests of every nicuiber 
of the community. At the same lime we ofl'cr tlie right to participate in the 
government of the Association, and its annual meetings; also the yearly pub- 
lications of the Association, wliich each member is entitled to receive, and 
which are annually increasing in value and variety of interest. All the Eervices 
rendered to the Association are gratuitous, with the exception of tlij expenses 
of publication, and tlie small expenditure nece.'sary to maintain a central office 
of record and correspondence. 

The Journal of Social Science, the Eighth Number of which is just published 
by A. Williams & Co., Boston ; G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York; Porter & 
Coates, Philadelphia; and Robert Clarke & Co., Cincinnati, — includes the 
paper herewith sent, and othefrs, among which is Mil. David A. Wei.ls's 
address at Detroit, on the Production and Dislrihiition of Wealth, which is ,<old 
separately. Previous numbers oi \.\ni Journal (the contmls of -which, with a 
list of papers separately published, will be found herewith) may be ordered 
of these publishers, or of 

F. B. Saxborn, Secretary of the Association, 

ft riiMBERTON SQUAUK, BOSTON, May, 1876. 



The Department of Health will present further papers on School Hygiene 
at the General Meeting to be held at Saratoga, Sept. 5-8, 1876. Announce- 
ment of titles of such papers will be made shortly. You are cordially invited 
to be present, and assist in the discussions, and, if expecting to do so, will con- 
fer a favor by informing me. Any comments on the statements of the present 
pamphlet will be welcome to us. Please address 

D. F. Lincoln, M.D., 

8 Beacon Street, Boston. 



American foetal Science Association* 



THE 



HEALTH OF SCHOOLS: 



PAPERS 



READ BEFORE THE AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, 
AT DETROIT, MAY, 1875. 



Yearly Eepoet of Peogeess, hy the Secretary of the Department of Health. 

The Neevous System, as affected by School Life, hy D. F. Lincoln, M.D. 

Gymnastics foe Schools, hy J. J. Putnam, M.D. 

Defects of Eyesight among American School Children, hy Cornelius R. Agnew, 

M.D. 
Rules foe the Caee of the Eyes, by D. F. Lincoln, M.D. 
Medical Inspection of Public Schools. 



BE PRINTED FROM ''TRE JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE," So. VUl. 



PUBLISHED FOR THE 

AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, 

By a. WILLIAMS & CO., 

283 "Washington St., Boston. 

ALSO FOR SALE BY 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, NEW YORK. ROBERT CLARKE & CO., CINCINNATI. 
PORTER & COATES, PHILADELPHIA. 

1876. 



J 



PEOCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OP HEALTH, AT 
DETROIT, MAY 11, 12, AND 13, 1875. 

Ik answer to a call issued from the Department, a public sectional 
meeting was held during the whole of the 12th and half of the 13th 
of May, at which were read completed and authorized reports from the 
committee of the Department, upon two subjects ; viz., " The Nervous 
System as injuriously affected by Schools," and " School Gymnastics." 
Brief communications, made in response to an urgent public demand 
for information, were also presented by the Department, concerning 
Defects of Sight, the Care of the Eyes, Medical Supervision of 
Schools, Systematic Inspection of Schools, Statistics of Sanitary State 
of Schools, Statistics of Rate of Growth of School-Children, and 
School Architecture. The latter series of papers must be considered 
as provisory, rather than as containing the full expression of the 
Department's opinion. Tlie Secretary's Report, explaining more fully 
the character of the work done, was read without debate, at the first 
general session of the Association, on the evening of May 11; and an 
abstract of it is here prefixed to the other papers : — 

Report of D. F. Lincoln, M.D., Secretakt of the Depart- 
ment OF Health. 

The report presented a year agQ to the Association contained a summary 
of (the plan) then recently (adopted /by the Department, for studying school 
hygiene.^ii It may be found in No. VII. of the Jujirnal of the Association, 
printed September, 1874. Since then, the plan has undergone some slight 
modification. ; The following is the list of topics which the Department ;now 
intends to treat of : — - 

1. Heating and ventilation. 

2. Light, and condition of the scholars' eyes. 

3. Seats, and deformities traceable to them. 

4. Architectural plans. 

5. Apparatus employed in instruction. 

6. Gymnastics. 

7. Condition of the nervous system. 

:, 8. Condition of the organ of hearing. 

! 9. Condition of the organs of pelvic cavity. 

! 
f 



4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

10. Drinking-water. 

11. Sewerage and water-closets. 

12. Commissions for sanitary inspection of given school districts. 

13. Brief of a law establishing the office of medical inspector of schools. 

14. Statistics of height and weight of school-children. 

15. Contagious diseases in schools. 

Of these, Nos. 6 and 7 are before you. Provisory reports upon Nos. 2, 4, 
12, 13, 14, are also ready. Nos. 3, 8, 11, 15, are assigned to competent hands; 
while Nos. 1, 5, 9, 10, are not assigned. 

Care has been taken, before presenting matter to the public, to secure it, 
as far as possible, from error in statement ; to this end, we have been accus- 
tomed to criticise all papers, and to order their revision in accordance with 
such criticism as appears justified. This is usually done at the regular 
monthly meetings of the Department. Further criticism is expected through 
the press, and from private individuals ; and, before an article finally takes its 
place in the Journal of the Association, it has undergone several revisals. 

It is possible that the entire series of researches, which is not yet complete, 
nor perhaps will be for a year or two longer, will be published at last in a 
single volume, for popular use. 

Attention is specially called to certain methods and formulae, which 
have been used in several examinations of school-children, instituted within 
the past year, the results of which are to be presented at these sectional 
sessions. 

(a) Those used in Philadelphia, during the past winter, under the orders 
of the Board of Control of Public Schools. These examinations are almost 
the first — certainly the first of any magnitude — ever carried out in the 
United States. The results have been partially tabulated ; and a printed 
broad-sheet is ready, containing a great deal of information concerning the 
sanitary condition of the grammar schools in that city. But as the total num- 
ber of separate reports is nearly four hundred, and there are many questions 
to be answered on each report, the labor of tabulating has been immense. It 
is fitting to add that the credit of organizing these measures is very greatly 
due to the Philadelphia Social Science Association, which we are honored in 
being permitted to call a branch of the American Social Science Association. 

Similar investigations, with the same series of questions, have been set on 
foot in St. Louis, by the public-school authorities ; but no results have yet been 
published, 

(b) Those used by Prof. H. P. Bowditch in caiTying out examinations of 
the height and weight of Boston public-school children, in accordance with the 
request of his department. This is ofiieially sanctioned by the school authori- 
ties; its execution will probably be a work of two years or more; and in its 
results it will furnish a contribution to the science of man, showing the present 
rate of growth of our native and foreign population at every period of life, from 
five up to eighteen years of age. Such investigations, if they could be carried 
out in other parts of America, would })rove of the utmost value, as furnishing a 
standard Ibr comparing our populations with each other, and with those of 
Europe. 

(c) Still another method of statistical research will be illustrated in the 



DR. LINCOLN ON HEALTH IN SCHOOLS. .5 

plans framed by Dr. C. R. Agnew of New York, a member of the Department 
of Health, who, in connection with others, has already examined the eyes of a 
great many school-children in Cincinnati, Brooklyn, and New York. The 
result will show how many scholars of different ages in various cities have 
defective sight ; and inferences of great importance will naturally spring from 
such observations. The same has been done, and is still doing, in St. Louis, 
Philadelphia, Albany, Rochester, and elsewhere. Dr. Hasket Derby, in 
Boston, intends to visit Amherst College every year, and examine the success- 
-ive classes of young men, so that a just idea may be formed of the rate at 
which near-sightedness makes progress from year to year among a selected 
number of men at study. The continuous observations which he plans have a 
peculiar interest. 

The secretary has also prepared, in outline, a set of rules for the care of the 
eyes, which will be read in connection with the above. Another outline has 
been drawn up by several members of the Department, for the purpose of 
bringing before the public the rules which architects ought to follow in build- 
ing schoolhouses, with a view to the health of their inmates. The importance 
of having these points clearly understood by architects is extremely great ; 
and I can hardly think of any subject connected with school hygiene, around 
which more interest would gather than around this, of " sanitary requirements 
of schoolhouses." 

It is not yet possible to say what subjects will be ready for presentation at 
the next general meeting ; but we hope to have ready more than one full report, 
with a great deal of statistical information (more or less incomplete) regarding 
the health of school-children. 

The first session of the Bepartnaent of Health was held in the 
Council committee-room of the City Hall, Eev. Charles H. Brigham 
of Ann Arbor presiding. 



The first paper was as follows : — 

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AS AFFECTED BY SCHOOL-LIFE. 
By Dk. D. F. Lincoln. Eead May 12, 1875. 

You will not fail to be struck with the fact, which meets us at the 
very outset of our inquiry, that an intimate connection subsists between 
this subject and many others standing upon the list which has been 
drawn up to represent " School Hygiene." 

This connection, however, furnishes no obstacle to the execution of 
our plan of simultaneous joint authorship. Only one of the list 
covers ground belonging, in a strict sense, to the present investigation. 
That subject is the one alluded to under the title '' Organs of the 
Pelvic Cavity," — a title designed to include all those derangements of 
health, about which so much has lately been written, occurring in 



6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

young girls during the process of sexual development. About this 
matter I shall say very little, both because of my own want of special 
fitness for the task, and because it seemed to the department, that the 
time had not yet come when a judicially impartial account could be 
given of this subject which has of late aroused such bitter and 
general controversy. Perhaps in a year or two this may yet be done; 
but we have as yet made no attempt whatever to examine into the 
matter. 

The next difficulty, however, is one of far greater moment ; and I 
may state it as follows : — ' 

Our entire nation is believed to be suffering from certain wide-spread 
sources of nervous degeneracy. Our children are but a part of the 
nation, and must suffer along with the older members of the popula- 
tion. How shall we discriminate between what is national, and what 
is simply scholastic ? Give the child a constitution derived from 
excitable parents ; a nutrition in infancy and childhood from which 
iron, lime, and the phosphates are mainly excluded ; a diet in later 
childhood most abundant but most unwholesome, and based upon 
a national disregard of the true principles of cookery ; a set of teeth 
which early fail to do their duty ; a climate which, at its best, is 
extremely trying, killing either the aged by excessive cold, or the 
little children by a tropical heat ; an atmosphere so deprived of 
moisture, that the most casual observers speak of it, and men of science 
consider it as capable of modifying our constitutions most profoundly ; 
add to these influences those of a moral nature, arising from the 
democratic constitution of our society, spurring on every man, woman, 
and child to indulgence in personal ambition, the desire to rise in 
society, to grow rich, to get office, to get every thing under the heavens ; 
add a set of social habits, as applied to the life of young girls and 
boys, which is utterly atrocious, which robs so many of them of their 
childhood at the age of ten or twelve, and converts them to simpering, 
self-concious flirts, and men of the world, ruses, and independent of 
control, a depraved and pitiable breed of " little women and little 
men;" add finally the fact, that we have now a population of six 
millions dwelling in cities of over one hundred thousand inhabitants, 
and exposed to those deteriorating influences which notoriously belong 
to great cities: give the child these conditions to grow up under, and 
can you wonder that he or she " deviates from the type " (as it is 
fashionable to say) of the sturdy Anglo-Saxon pioneer who settled 
this continent? And can we wonder that educators, persons deeply 
interested in their profession, and sincerely conscientious, should pro- 
test against the charges brought by physicians against their systems of 
instruction, should protest against the very title of this paper, and 



DR. LINCOLN ON HEALTH IN SCHOOLS. 7 

should appeal from the laziness and folly of parents, and what they 
consider as the professional prejudices of medical men ? 

With these difficulties, inherent in the subject, you will pardon me, 
if I succeed in doing no more than positing the question. I neverthe- 
less think that I shall show that schools do cause a certain amount of 
injury of the sort called " nervous ; " but you must not look for any 
thing like a statistical exhibit of the amount of harm done. The 
method of investigation, which results in good statistics, has been cul- 
tivated in precisely this direction in several cities within the past year, 
as in Philadelphia, St. Louis, New York, and elsewhere; but the 
opportunities and the working-power of a single man are but very 
small, as compared with the amount that ought to be done even in a 
single city. The present paper therefore aims, first, to exhibit the 
physiological laws which govern the subject, and to show how school- 
life is capable on the one hand of benefiting, and on the other hand 
of injuring, the fabric called the Nervous System ; and, second, to 
illustrate these principles by citations from the opinions and observa- 
tions of about seventy persons, physicians, and teachers, who have 
favored me with correspondence. 

PART I. 

PHYSIOLOGICAL LAWS GOVERNING THE MENTAL AND NERVOUS HEALTH 

or PUPILS. 

In the most general terms, the nervous system may be characterized 
as an accumulator, a distributor, and a regulator of the forces of our 
animal economy. 

By it the mind is informed of what may be seen, heard, felt, or 
touched ; by it the perception is stored up, the thought remembered, 
the process of thinking carried on. By means of it, the beating of 
the heart, and the circulation of blood through the body, are regulated. 
If there is a demand for fresh blood, in order to custain the activity of 
the brain, a portion of the nervous system is charged with seeing to it 
that fresh blood in greater quantities is sent to the brain. By means 
of nervous action, the tears flow, the mouth is moistened when we eat, 
the stomach is enabled to digest its food, and the bowels to carry on 
what the stomach begins. And by it, also, the muscles are enabled to 
act, and to transform chemical force into the forces of motion and heat. 
In fact, the muscular functions are in a sense nervous functions. Not 
only that nervous force is consumed in the pei;formance of muscular 
acts, and is reciprocally strengthened by such performance, but also 
that the muscles themselves seem, in tlie ultimate analysis, to be 
simply a spreading-out of nerve-tubes, as the foliage of a tree is the 
expansion of its boughs and branches. Hence, when speaking of the 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

department of medicine called neurology, or the special treatment of 
nervous diseases, we are obliged to include the diseases of the muscles 
themselves under the same heading. 

I have not begun to exhaust the statement of the functions with 
which the nervous system is connected, but will just call your attention 
to the fact that every one of these relations is doubly reciprocal, like 
the effect of a pair of mirrors placed over against each other. Nothing 
happens to any organ which has not its effect upon some part of the 
nervous system ; and nothing happens in our brains, or any other ner- 
vous organ, without producing its effect upon some organ not nervous. 

It is well to state here, in order to enable you to anticipate a little 
the results of this paper, that the actual derangements of the nervous 
functions which are commonlj^ believed to be produced by improper 
influences at school are the following; viz., — 

First, a group collectively termed " Neurasthenia," composed of 
debility and general depression, dyspepsia, sleeplessness, irritability, 
headache ; then nosebleed, a symptom of congestion, which seems 
quite rare in America as compared with some parts of Europe ; then 
chorea or St. Vitus's Dance, a disease of childhood proper ; then neu- 
ralgia, hysteria, irritable spine, or spinal anaemia, and menstrual anom- 
alies. 

This list was given in a printed circular of inquiry issued to physi- 
cians, and from their answers it appears that little remains to be added 
to the list. But I must add, that several correspondents have of their 
own accord suggested other evils of more or less importance ; as 
insanity, self-abuse, injury to the urinary organs from long confine- 
ment, deformities of the chest and spine, and typhoid fever. 

With this general view of the scope and tendency of our inquiry, 
let us now pass to the consideration of the question, " How may school 
influences directly benefit the nervous sj^'stem ? " 

In the first place, the school may provide for a reasonable degree of 
physical exercise, which every scholar should perform unless excused 
by his physician. There is very little chance for healthy sports in 
great cities ; and it is precisely in these cities that the greatest num- 
ber of hours is spent in schools. If civilization takes from its mem- 
bers the country air and country sports which are the natural means 
of health, civilization is bound to make good the loss to those who are 
too poor to make it good for themselves ; and that means nine-tenths 
of the people in cities. 

As regards fresh air, and other hygienic essentials of schools, the 
attempt is sometimes made to excuse deficiencies by saying that " the 
scholars are better off in school than in their own wretched houses." 

This excuse is apt to prove fallacious. It is our duty to ask, when 



DR. LINCOLN ON HEALTH IN SCHOOLS. 9 

such remarks are made, " How much better off are they when in 
school ? " Is the air at home charged with fourteen parts of impurity, 
for example, and that in school with only twelve or thirteen parts ? 
Such a comparison reflects no credit upon the school : if both places 
are blamable, then our duty obviously begins at the school, which we 
build and furnish, -and to which we compel the children to come. 

But let us not delay over this sufficiently obvious point. What we 
desire to know just now is, whether a thoroughly good school is a posi- 
tive benefit to physical health. Granting that the air is pure, and the 
surroundings are all hygienically perfect, are the work and the disci- 
pline of schools beneficial, per se ? 

And first, as to the work, the simple mental work ; is that capable 
of doing positive good ? 

The answer to this question is as follows : Pure mental work, quite 
free from what is called ''feeling," is not possible to a conscious human 
being; but pure work, accompanied by the simple feeling of satisfac- 
tion termed " interest," in a moderate degree, acts on the system like 
any other healthy work, by consuming the chemical elements; if the 
brain is at work, one sort of change goes on ; if the muscles, another 
sort ; but brain-work and muscle-work equally create a demand for 
fresh nourishment, and this demand constitutes a healthy appetite for 
food. It is fully understood by " brain-workers," that certain studies 
tax the endurance of the entire system as much as the severest bodily 
toil. Persons with good brains are fatigued by mental labor as much 
as persons with good muscles are by bodily labor. Now, I do not men- 
tion fatigue as a desirable thing, but the processes which lead to fatigue 
are good if kept within reasonable bounds ; and I hold it to be phys- 
iologically correct, that these processes are much alike, though not 
identical, in the acts of thinking and of muscular motion. Indeed, 
voluntary muscular motion is absolutely dependent upon a supply of 
nervous force, which is probably generated in a portion of brain lying 
within the temples. When muscles are palsied, their nerves are pretty 
sure to be affected ; and when nerves, their muscles : hence it is often 
extremely difficult to say whether a given disease of either organ 
begins in nervous tissue or in muscular tissue. 

Mental occupation, like all other natural occupation, is therefore 
good ; or, at least, it has a presumption in its favor. But the value of 
this work is vastly enhanced by the methodical way in which a good 
school enforces its performance. Our teachers, in many cases, deserve 
the greatest credit for their judicious firmness in restraining from over- 
work, as well as in requiring the full amount of work ; and I know 
well, that adult students would often be benefited by such regulations 
as would prevent them from over-driving their intellectual machine. 



10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

Why, then, can we not make our children work with their brains, 
and trust nature to develop their muscles? I believe there is a special 
reason why we ma}' not do this, and somewhat as follows : The ner- 
vous organs require nutrition like other organs; they are dependent 
upon the blood, w-hich conveys to them what is required to repair 
waste ; and the blood is again dependent upon the heart and the blood- 
vessels, which pump it to the points of supply. Now, the heart and 
the blood-vessels are miascular organs ; their capacity to force the 
nutritious fluid to its destination depends on the amount and the good 
condition of the muscular tissue they contain. A strong pulse is 
needed by a strong brain ; and if we want a strong pulse we must 
strengthen the heart. And in no way can this be done except by 
muscular exercise, which drives the blood on to the heart, distending 
and stimulating it in such a manner that the organ gradually increases 
in size and firmness, growing vigorous in sympathy with the other 
muscles of the body. Of the danger of excess in this practice, I will 
speak later. 

Of the muscular structures of the chest, there are some which have 
no particular use except to assist in breathing ; these, the respiratory 
muscles, need a similar development through training, in order that 
pure air may be largely introduced into the lungs ; a process which you 
know to be indispensable to the proper nutrition of the body, and the 
performance of the processes of oxidation required by all the tissues. 

So far, we have seen that muscular activity is indispensable, even to 
the health of the brain ; while, as regards the action of the brain in 
thinking, we have succeeded only in establishing a presumption in its 
favor. Tliis being the case, — the one being essential, the other only 
permissible, — it would seem as if those who exercised their muscles 
stood a better chance of perfect health than mere brain-workers. It is 
commonly assumed, that boys are necessarily in better health when let 
run freely in the open air without schooling, and that day-laborers 
are the healthiest part of the community. But these assumptions ' are 
greatly neutralized by two facts, — the privations undergone by the 
poor, and the noxious effects, in any class or age, of excessive muscular 
exertion, which is certainly capable of doing as much harm as over- 
work of the mind. Consumption, various forms of heart-complaint, of 
palsy, of muscular disease, not to speak of the great enemy rheuma- 
tism, are the penalties of excessive muscular effort. Stupidity is 
another penalty, deserving serious mention. 

The laboring classes have diseases as many and as serious as those 
of the intellectual classes. ISTay, more : it would seem from statistics 
that the latter are much longer-lived than the former, however it may 
be with their health. Clergymen, lawyers, physicians, merchants, sci- 



DR. LINCOLN ON HEALTH IN SCHOOLS. 11 

entists, and men of letters live very much longer than the classes that 
work with their muscles chiefly; the figures are given differently by 
different authorities, ranging from fifty-six years up to sixty-five as 
the average length of life in the former, while the average life of all 
persons who reach the adult age is about fifty years. In the upper 
and professional classes in England, statistics relating to nearly forty- 
eight thousand persons have recently been published by Charles Ansell, 
showing that the average annual mortality in one thousand, of those 
under sixty years of age, was 10.46 as against an average of 17.65 
for all classes in England and Wales. 

These figures maj' be taken for what they are worth : I use them 
only to rebut the common arguments in favor of the necessarily supe- 
rior health of mere hand-workers. But another turn is given to the 
argument by those who assume that the educated and the rich, though 
longer-lived, are more subject to chronic troubles, as dyspepsia, neural- 
gia, and gout. This view is most incorrect, I am sure, as regards the 
population of large cities. No one who has had experience in dispen- 
saries can think that the poor have as good health as the well-to-do 
classes. The well-to-do are those whom Nature has blessed with 
tougher constitutions, greater powers of mental work and endurance ; 
persons of higher endowments in every way than those possessed by 
the poor: hence, while they know better how take care of their 
health, they possess also better means for doing so. Theirs are the 
sunny streets, the wholesome quarters ; while to the poor belongs the 
gift of large families, and a doubled or trebled rate of mortality in 
children. Hence also, permit me to say, upon them rests the impera- 
tive duty of helping their weaker neighbors to obtain a reasonable 
share of health and intelligence. The problem is, however, compli- 
cated ; and it is impossible to give full value to all the arguments in 
this place. 

So far we have seen, from several points of view, that the presump- 
tion is in favor of the wholesomeness of mental work, as required in a 
well-governed school. One reason for this has already been given. It 
• is good for the body, because it is bodily work ; because as such it fur- 
thers the processes of chemical transmutations, and hastens the renew- 
al of tissue ; and because it is better for us to have this renewal, a 
fresh body — one composed of recent elements — being more vigorous 
in all its functions than a stale and rusty organism. This is the fact 
as it looks from a chemical point of view. But we scarcely need 
technical language in order to understand this. It can be stated in 
every-day phrases ; and it will be instructive to make a re-statement of 
this sort, which I will now do. 

Our life is largely made up of appetites or cravings of various sorts. 



12 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

The most familiar of these are the cravings for food and drink, for 
breath, for sleep, for air and sunlight. The presence of any one of 
these, in a healthy person, shows the existence of a chemical exi- 
gency or crisis, which requires the addition of some element, — car- 
bon, oxygen, nitrogen, fat, starch, animal fibre, salt, water, and so 
on ; or the introduction of some force, as light, heat, or atmospheric 
electricity. If these desires are not gratified, the health suffers. Now, 
there is another class of cravings, equally important, and equally im- 
perious in their claims : I mean the various desires to expend animal 
or mental force, — the longing to exert muscular energy, the desire to 
move about after having sat still for a long time. The entire range of 
our mental powers furnishes us with examples of a similar sort ; as 
the gifts of speech, of laughter, of musical genius, of the power to 
observe, to paint, carve, or otherwise represent, the power to command 
other wills, the capacity for greatly loving other persons, for receiving 
or giving sympathy. All these must be exercised by those healthy 
human beings who possess them, under penalty of a loss of well- 
being. 

Now, it is evidently impossible to exercise all our faculties at once in 
such a way as to bring each to a state of the utmost development. It is 
the business of an educator to see, first, that the faculties essential to 
well-being are developed, — the muscles of respiration, by singing, 
dancing, running, and childish athletic sports ; the muscles of the 
will, by similar methods, and perhaps gymnastics; the intelligence, by 
school instruction of various sorts. But, while doing this, he should 
bear in mind those traits of childhood which are most irrepressible, 
and should both guide them and be guided by them. Muscularity — or 
more rightly expressed, a liberal indulgence in muscular sports — is the 
craving of healthy boyhood: if denied, no amount of mental occupa- 
tion will take its place. On the contrary, mental stimuli are most dan- 
gerous to a boy who is physically idle, and only tend to hasten those 
sexual crises (so fatally ignored by many educators) which are sure to 
come, and to place a certain proportion in peril both of health and 
morals. I am speaking of a great evil, and one little understood ; for . 
which the remedies are to be found in a liberal stimulation of all the 
nobler parts of a boy's nature at once, — his will, his courage, his 
fortitude, his honor, his sense of duty to God and man, his interest in 
some mental pursuit. 

As respects girls, there is no doubt that they are capable of taking 
as keen enjoyment as boys in muscular exercise, though of a somewhat 
diff'erent nature. 

That it would be for their good to strengthen their wills and their 
courage by such methods, no physician can doubt. But the obstacles 



DR. LINCOLN ON HEALTH IN SCHOOLS. 13 

to such development are very great, especially in cities, and in all 
places where fashion imposes a limit to the expansion of the lungs, and 
cuts off the indulgence in the pleasure of hreathing. 

I trust enough has been said to direct your attention to muscular 
training as a branch of education. But it would be a neglect of duty 
did I fail to add that the whole matter must be under control and 
regulation, and that forced and violent exercises in gymnasiums, or 
out of them, are capable of doing great harm. It is a great mis- 
take to work the brain till it can do no more, and then, feeling 
fagged out, to take violent gymnastic exercise or a long walk. Moth- 
ers know that their little boys can make themselves sick by playing too 
hard. Some children cannot play too hard, and some adults can be 
Hercules and Apollo in the same day : these are few. I would sug- 
gest, that a rule of the following sort be laid down for those who are 
old enough to follow it : " Never let the bodily exercise be so crowded 
into a corner by work that you cease to enjoy it, to relish it as a well 
person relishes food ; but, as to the amount of exercise you take, let that 
be governed by the appetite for it. And do not feel bound to make 
your biceps big; for the muscles which do not show — those lying 
between the ribs, under the shoulder-blade, and the diaphragm — r are 
more important, and are suitably developed by systematized breathing, 
by vigorous walking, and a little running or lifting, if you can bear 
it." Such advice is, on the whole, more judicious for adults, who have 
severe tasks of a mental nature, than would be the indiscriminate rec- 
ommendation of gymnastics. 

I come now to another set of causes, which ought favorably to influ- 
ence the health of scholars. I refer to the fact, not much understood 
in a practical way, that happiness is of itself one of the surest sources 
of health ; or, in medical terms, that joy is the best tonic we possess. 
Pleasurable sensations are imparted by all efforts made willingly, if 
within our powers. The scholar has that source of pleasure constantly, 
if he is well managed. He is interested ; and interest is the chief 
factor in' happiness, while want of interest is a sort of hell on earth. 
He has the sense of mastering difficulties, of conquering his own 
weakness and ignorance. His cheerfulness is promoted by making the 
work brisk and vigorous, both in recitation and during study. He is 
conscious of success and of gain, and that without reference to the 
standard of his fellows, but by reference to himself. His self-control 
and habits of order are strengthened ; which must indirectly prove 
beneficial to his health. And, finally, he is conscious of having a 
friend and sympathizer in the person of his teacher ; or, if not, there 
is serious fault to be found somewhere. Eitlier the teacher is deficient, 
or else the class is so numerous that it is impossible for him to know 
the characters of his pupils. 



U PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

Now let us turn the picture, and see the reverse. What harm is 
done through injudicious schooling? 

In answer, let me say, that, if mental enjoyment does good to the 
system, the sensation of inadequac}^ to one's task is a source of acute 
suffering and injury. Pain felt in a nerve is a proof that the nerve is 
not duly nourished, or has been tired out by overwork ; and, in accord- 
ance with this fact, we find that its proper function, that of distin- 
guishing objects by means of touch, is weakened during an attack of 
neuralgia. In muscles, fatigue easily passes into pain, which may 
quite cripple one for a while, as when a person begins too violently 
with g3'mnastic exercises. But in the mind we feel the pain called 
depression of spirits, when required to discharge mental functions 
beyond our strengtli. The sensation is like that felt by insane 
patients suffering from Melancholia, to whom life is only a burden, and 
suicide the only apparent duty. But it is rarely the case that such a 
condition occurs in young children. If overworked, their minds are 
apt also to be strongly interested, their feelings in a state of tension; 
their ambition acts as a spur, and does not let them know how tired 
they are; so that irritability, rather than depression, is characteristic of 
children suffering from school tasks. And be it said, that this state is 
most needlessly aggravated by a great many petty restrictions and 
points of discipline, which keep the child in a state of continual appre- 
hension. He is perhaps marked for tardiness, and hence eats his 
meals in a state jf trepidation lest he come late to school : he is 
marked for each recitation ; he is constantly inquiring how he stands ; 
and, if he is ambitious, the consciousness of impending destiny is ever 
present to his mind. I speak not of such folly as giving a child a 
demerit for not coming to school five minutes before the hour ap- 
pointed j or giving merits for the performance of tasks like sweeping 
down the stairs of the schoolhouse, or sharpening the other children's 
slate-pencils ! But we are called upon very strongly to condemn all 
points in the management of schools, which give rise to anxiet_y, appre- 
hension ; exaggerated feeling, in short, of any sort, whether of joy or 
pain, in the minds of scholars. 

But leaving this point, and returning to the consideration of the 
efi'ects of overwork : these effects are developed either by excess in 
quantity or by a monotonous strain of the faculties in one direction. 

As to excess in quantity, a cliild is capable of doing a good deal of 
work ; but it must be done under the conditions of perfect sanitary sur- 
roundings, and, above all, of frequent rest. -'The child's brain soon 
tires," says West; "and the arrangement, so convenient to parents, 
of morning lessons and afternoon play, works far less well for it than 
if the time were more equally divided between the two." The need of 



DR. LINCOLN ON HEALTH IN SCHOOLS. 15 

frequent recesses is admitted by all ; but I find decided differences of 
opinion among teachers as to bow frequent they should be. If a child 
of eight or nine years works half an hour, he may be perfectly 
refreshed by five minutes' rest and amusement, and ready to go to work 
again ; but, if he is kept at his tasks for four half-hours continuously, 
twenty minutes will not begin to suffice to bring him up to condition. 
A long unbroken session takes out of a young child more than he can 
make good by repair before the next session ; and the total of these 
excesses of waste are subtracted from his total growth, stunting his 
body and mind together. 

Deprivation of sleep is another factor in producing exhaustion. 
And let it be remarked, that the worst thing about " home .lessons " is 
the danger that they will be studied late in the evening, and, by the 
congested condition of the brain thus produced, prevent the child from 
falling into a sound, refreshing sleep. 

Deprivation of food often occurs. A child under twelve cannot 
usually go more than four hours without food ; and privation of this 
sort, though willingly borne by the zealous scholar, makes itself felt at 
the next meal-time by an incapacity to relish or to digest what is set 
before him. Schools should always make reasonable provision of time 
and place for the scholars' luncheons ; and, if there is a long session, 
parents ought to be expressly informed of this, and requested to furnish 
their children with something suitable. As for the regular meals, a 
parent is inexcusable who will permit a child to miss them, or to take 
them irregularly, or to lose its appetite for them, except in case of war, 
insurrection, or peril by sea. 

There is a condition, not infrequent in the adult occupants of schools 
in which a person seems to have used up all the surplus of vital force 
he possesses. There is no remedy for such cases but a protracted rest 
from all that can tax the powers. 

The same condition may be observed in older children. But in the 
younger — say those under ten — the danger lies more in another 
direction. Educators, whether teachers or parents, are always liable to 
forget that the extreme volatility of a child cannot be conquered, but 
belongs to his nature ; hence his tasks are always liable to be too 
monotonous — more like what an adult would think suitable than what 
a child would really be best suited with. ISTow, the overstraining of a 
faculty in any one direction is a most serious matter. If a clerk is kept 
too long at writing, the muscles which hold his pen grow weary ; the 
weariness grows chronic ; pain and constraint begin to be felt whenever 
he takes up his pen ; one muscle gives out entirely, and he tries to 
make its place good by adopting a new plan of holding his pen; but 
tlie new way has again to be given up, and the entire process of writ- 



16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

ing soon becomes insupportable ; he may even be prevented from work 
by muscular spasms in the fingers. The remedy consists in three 
things, — first, rest ; second, treatment of the wearied muscles ; and, 
third, regular voluntary exercises of the other muscles — those which 
are little or not at all affected — of the hand and arm. In other words, 
the hand has to be drilled into a habit of distributing its forces among 
various functions. The amount of mental and physical energy which 
would carry a man easily through a day's work on a farm may thus, if 
concentrated upon one set of muscular functions, set up a disease in the 
latter, which will end in paralysis. Nor is this true of the hand alone. 
A whole class of these diseases exists, denominated by the Germans 
heschdftigungs-neurosen, or professional diseases. Thus the shoe- 
maker's cramp, the ballet-dancer's cramp, the "hammer-palsy," of 
sledge-hammer men, and the myalgia (muscular pains and debility) of 
sewing-women. 

We often hear a distinction made between " natural " and " unnatu- 
ral " forms of bodily exercise : and the preference is instinctively given 
to the former by most people. Now, the very best forms of natural 
exercise are those which develop a rhythmic sequence of effort and 
pause. Walking, dancing, and running never exercise the two 
halves of the body at the same time in the same way ; the efforts may 
be constant, but they are relieved by alternations of right and left. 
In fencing, the old masters try to teach a similar balance. It is not in 
man's nature, when furnished with a pair of organs, right and left, to 
use both at once in an absolutely identical way. Standing in a mili- 
tary position is the most fatiguing thing possible. And if we turn to 
an organ like the eye, which is capable of severe labor of a more intel- 
lectual nature, we find that, though both retinae are used together, yet 
both take turns, at intervals, of resting, so that we actually, while 
looking intently at an object, do lose sight of it, though unconsciously, 
for a second, upon the right, and, presently, for a second, upon the left 
side, and so on. Riding presents an instance where a pair of muscles 
must be kept ratlier firmly and steadily stretched to clasp the saddle , 
but, in riding, the whole body of the man is subjected to the rhythm of 
another body, that of the horse, so that a multitude of unconscious 
movements are made in the most perfect rhythm back and forward, to 
right and left, by the trunk. I need not speak of the respiration, the 
beat of the heart, the natural movements of digestion. Worshippers 
in the true temple of Hygiea use for the most part an antiphonal 
service ; and the antiphony of effort and pause in mental operations 
gives the most beautiful — as the Greeks would say, the most musical 
— stimulus and expression to the mind. 

We do not as yet realize how intellectual an organ a muscle is. 



DR. LINCOLN ON HEALTH IN SCHOOLS. 17 

Those of the face are called mimetic, or muscles for the expression of 
emotion ; but every voluntary muscle in the body, when in action, 
expresses the energy of one of the most complicated intellectual 
processes, though one little thought of as such, — that of volition. 
And I cannot refrain from tracing the analogy a step or two further, 
between the case of writers' palsy, and that of nervous excitability 
and exhaustion from severe tasks at school. The points of analogy 
are as follows : the child's mental trouble shows itself by unreason- 
able behavior, fits of ill-temper quite foreign to his proper disposition ; 
and the man's muscular trouble is commonly associated with strange 
and purposeless jerkings of the muscles, equally foreign to purpose and 
reason. 

And, still further, if you observe a man trying to write in this 
disorder, you will see that the anxiety of the effort makes him ten 
times worse, as if his hand were afflicted with stuttering; while j^ou 
well know that the anxieties arising from emulation, contention for 
prizes and rank, the unceasing effort to hold the tongue, to sit straight, 
to reach a given goal at a given time, wear out a child vastly more 
than long, hard lessons. 

I had thought to enlarge upon the latter point, but will rather leave 
it to my correspondents, from whom you shall presently hear expres- 
sions of opinion upon the matter. 

Although the subject of Diet is so essentially- connected with 
Education, yet I must at present refrain from entering into a state- 
ment of the principles which should direct its regulation. But upon 
one matter I feel specially called upon to speak. Modern Europe and 
America, during the last hundred years, have entered upon a vast 
physiological experiment. This consists in the use of a new order of 
stimulants, as a part of the daily life of everybody except verj' young 
children. 

Whether in the energetic and strongly vitalized populations of the 
Western States, children are allowed the use of tea and coffee, I know 
not ; but in New England it is extremely common among the poorer 
classes to allow these beverages in full strength, as an article of daily 
use, to children of five years old and upwards. Let me therefore 
explain my reasons for speaking of the latter custoni, and (eventually) 
for condemning it. 

Both coffee and tea act pretty much alike upon the system. In 
reasonable quantities they are capable of stimulating digestion, of 
relieving constipation, of counteracting in a remarkable manner the 
effects of severe cold, of relieving neuralgic headaches, of driving 
away the noxious sleep of opium and other drugs, and stimulating t]\e 
mental faculties in an agreeable manner. 



18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

They seem to place the system in a condition in which more nervous 
force can be expended in a given time, so that the person can speak, 
think, walk, write, more vigorously and for a longer period. But, while 
thus laying a larger stock of ammunition ready ^^to our hand, they also 
increase the danger of spontaneous explosions. While increasing our 
capacity for perceiving and feeling, they also render us more excitable ; 
the feelings, whether of j®y or pain, or of sentimental emotion, come 
quicker, and are more overpowering. If they stimulate to muscular 
action, and render it more facile, they also give rise (as you all know) 
to occasional twitchings and tremblings of tlie muscles, quite annoying, 
and indicative of absolute excess in the use of the remedy. 

In tliis respect, and in some others, there is a decided analogy 
between the action of these medicines, and that of strychnia taken in 
minute doses. Animals poisoned with theine or caffeine die in violent 
convulsions. But the parallel is by no means complete. Rather let 
us say that these beverages act as mohilizers of force. To use them is 
like putting a hair-trigger upon yonv rifle. 

I have not attempted to draw a picture of the evils which they may 
give rise to, but will confine myself to the legitimate inference which 
follows the last statements. If they render the expenditure of nervous 
force easier, in what tremendous danger may they not place the young 
and excitable minds of American children, eager to learn and to excel? 
If, under tlieir influence, the teacher is enabled to sit up all night, 
attending to an excess of school-work, will not the scholar be driven 
by tl)e pleasurable impulse to labor, and the conscious ease of action 
given through cofi:ee or tea, to a degree of overwork, which, less in 
amount, may be equally disproportioned to his powers? I speak both 
of boys and of girls; biit the latter will inevitably suffer more than 
boys. In tlie "grave, measured, and exact language of truth and 
verity," as Trousseau, the greatest of French therapeutists, phrases it, 
*' Those whose .nervous systems are weak suffer, when using coffee 
even in moderate quantities, from heat, anxiety, palpitation of the 
heart, slenplessn ess ; if they use it in excess, from headache, vertigo, 
tremor of the limbs, pusillanimity, eruptions on the face ; it may give 
rise to or increase the diseases of hysteria and hypochondria." What 
teacher of children does not recognize this picture ? 

I desire, therefore, to express \\\y wish, tliat the time may soon come 
when coffee and tea shall be withheld entirely from children under 
sixteen or eighteen years of age — according to their development — 
except when it is exj^resslj'^ recommended by physicians. It is abso- 
lutely beyond a question, that most children will develop a better 
physique without them. As for adults, their habits are necessarily 
very different from those of children, and we ne,ed not here extend our 



DR. LINCOLN ON HEALTH IN SCHOOLS. 19 

remarks to them. And, as beer and wine are scarcely used by cliildren, 
I will also pass tbem by in silence. 

There are three special faults in sanitary conditions which do harm 
to the nervous system of those in schoolrooms. These are, the means 
employed in lighting evening schools, the undue heat of schoolrooms, 
and the excessive dryness of their atmosphere, with other impurities. 

Our nation is fond of burning a good deal of gas or mineral oil ; and 
as a result our rooms are apt to get overheated. One gas-burner 
consumes as much oxygen in an hour as several persons, thus con- 
taminating the air very rapidly, and heating the upper strata very 
much. In burning, gas gives out impurities, very perceptible to the 
smell, chiefly composed of sulphurous acid gas; besides which, the 
power of direct radiation of heat possessed by a cluster of burners is 
very great ; so that the heads of persons in the room, enveloped in a 
cloud of hot deoxydized sulphurated vapor, are subjected to the effects 
of radiant heat, which are of an irritating nature, quite different fl'om 
those of fixed heat. Of course' headaches and utter exhaustion are 
the result. 

It is the general custom, I am sure, in American schoolhouses, to 
keep the thermometer at about 70° F., provided the furnaces will de- 
liver heat enough. Dr. Bowditch says: ''In the sitting-room (of a 
family) the heat should not be above 72° F., nor below 68° ; 70°, the 
medium, is the best." Now, with all possible respect for such high 
scientific authority, I beg to demur to this standard, widely accepted 
though I know it to be ; for young persons and children, if properly fed 
and clothed and dried, it appears to me that 66° or 67° is quite enough. 
In the only perfectly ventilated schools I now remember, the tempera- 
ture was kept at this point, and no complaint of cold was made by the 
scholars. The effects of excessive dry heat of climate upon persons of 
our race are usually manifested in the production of " simple general 
debility, a weakening of the bodily functions, marked by a diminution 
of the assimilative and digestive powers, and resulting in the loss of 
weight, and ansemia or poverty of the blood." And there is good 
reason to suppose that a difference of four or five degrees constitutes 
an important difference in climate. In an equable summer climate, a 
rise of the thermometer at noon to 76° may be felt, as an uncomfort- 
able heat, while a fall to 68° will designate the day as " cool." 

Neither heat, carbonic acid and oxide, sulphurous vapor, nor excess- 
ive dryness of the atmosphere, are felt as evils by the majority of our 
people ; but all of them are dangerous in a special sense to the nerv- 
ous system. Eecent experiments made by Dr. Falk in Berlin show 
that air deprived of moisture makes the breathing more rapid and less 
deep ; it quickens the pulse, alnd slightly lowers the temperature of the 



20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

body ; and iu a few instances it appears that a current of absolutely- 
dry air, continued for several hours, produced epileptic attacks in Guinea- 
pigs exposed to it. Dryness of atmosphere certainly tends to make 
the human subject irritable and excitable. A few people are the vic- 
tims of untold misery when exposed to carbonic oxide fumes. I do not 
know what can be done absolutely to prevent the evil, unless we give 
up anthracite furnaces altogether. 

PART II. 

CITATIONS OF OPINIO'S FROM PHYSICIANS AND TEACHERS. 

In collecting opinions, it seemed best to address physicians in differ- 
ent terms from those used towards educators : two forms of circular, 
therefore, were employed. Thirty-four of the replies are from physi- 
cians, and forty-seven from principals of jjublic or private schools, and 
superintendents of public instruction in various places. The informa- 
tion obtained from the replies has been arrayed under the following 
beads : — 

1. Regarding the fact of the existence of these evils. 

2. Nature of the naaladies. 

3. Excessive amount of study, as a cause. 

4. Faulty methods of teaching, as a cause. 

6. Bad sanitary condition of school, as a cause. 

6. Dissipation out of school, as a cause. 

7. The health of girls. 

8. Health of teachers. 

1. — Existence of the Evils spoken of. 

'As regards this point, the question was put to physicians as follows : — 
" Have you observed frequent injury (see below for definition) of a temporary or per- 
manent sort, resulting from the excessive or unsuitable work exacted of children and 
young people in schools? " 

This was answered affirmatively by twenty-two ; negatively by four ; " Yes 
but not from sehool-work proper," by four ; and, " Very rare with us," by one. 
The corresponding question, put to teachers, read as foUlows : — 

" Have you seen pupils suffering from headache, nose-bleed, debility, languor, or other 
complaints, which you think caused by school-life or school-work? " 

Answers ; — 

No 8 

Rarely 18 

Often 3 

Yes 12 

Total 41 

By tliese the special remark was made, to wit, " Boys rarely," two ; " Girls 
no worse than boys," one ; " Never bad for the vigorous and strong," one ; 
"Yes, owing to bad food and lack of exercise," two j "Yes^ owing to over 
exertion in walking and gymnastics," two< 



DK. LINCOLN ON HEALTH IN SCHOOLS. 21 

There is here a reasonable degree of agreement between medical opinion 
and that of professional educators (who for the sake of brevity shall be called 
" teachers " ) as to the existence of an evil; but medical men seem to be more 
impressed with its frequency than teachers. 

2. — Nature of the Maladies. 
That which may be called " Neurasthenia," characterized by the symptoms 
of debility and general depression, dyspepsia, sleeplessness, irritability, and 
headache, was mentioned by fourteen diflferent physicians. Seven others gave 
a general assent to the entire list of disorders printed in the circular and, of 
these twenty-one, several made special mention of the following diseases ; viz., — 

Menstrual anomalies 7 

Irritable spine 5 

Hysteria, chorea, neuralgia, each 4 

Nose-bleed ^ 3 

The following disorders, in addition to those named in the circular, were 
mentioned spontaneously, each by one or two physicians: Deformity of , the 
chest or spine, injury to the urinary' organs from long confinement in the 
school, phthisis (consumption), typhoid fever, self-abuse, insanity ; of which only 
the last two properly come under the head of "nervous injuries." 

The teachers' replies add nothing to this list. 

3. — Excessive Amount of Study, as a Cause. 

As regards the actual amount of study required, it is stated by the teachers 
that the number of hours spent in school, inclusive of recitations, recess, and 
gymnastics, is reasonable in most cases, — twenty-five or twenty-six hours a 
week, or even less, in twenty-three cases ; about thirty hours in ten cases ; 
thirty-six in one ; forty-five or fifty in one; and sixty in one. The two last are 
certainly very excessive ; and this is admitted by the correspondents, who are 
principals of large academies in New England. Study at home is not required 
in nine cases ; for scholars over thirteen years of age, two or more hours a day 
are required in eight cases, and less than two hours in fifteen ; for those be 
tween ten and thirteen, one or two hours in seven cases ; for those under ten, 
an hour a day in two cases. The latter requisition is certainly improper. The 
amount of study was considered " suitable " by twenty-six teachers, while ten 
thought it too great in their own school or under their own observation. 

4. — Faulty Methods of Teaching, as a Cause. 

A good many teachers have remarks to make pointing in this direction. 
The methods of teaching, and the qualifications of teachers, are spoken of in general 

terms as inferior by 6 

Emulation is condemned by 8 

Emulation is praised by 3 

Emulation is said to be good for boys by 1 

1 A symptom pointing to congestion of the head, observed frequently among school 
children by Guillaame in Neufchatel, and Becker in Darmstadt. In these American 
school-children it would seem to be less frequent. Of the " tesichers," only three referred 
to it at all, though specially asked; and those three denied that they had ever observed it 



22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

The following recommendations ai'e made, each by one or two teachers : — 
To educate girls over fourteen as far as possible by themselves ; to let young 
people over fifteen or sixteen study by themselves ; to guard young children 
against the nervous excitement which arises from simple contact with a large 
number, even of the best scholars in a boarding-school ; to let each young lady 
student have a separate sleeping-room ; to inculcate religion as a motive for 
conduct; to give more frequent recesses; more play-ground; a room in the 
school for dancing in recess time ; occasional reduction of work, or sending 
home for a while ; to lengthen the terms, or require more time for the course of 
study ; to pass the scholar more slowly through the diiferent grades ; to abolish 
public exhibitions ; to abandon the " high-pressure " system ; to give more 
prominence to the study of physiology ; and finally " a total revolution ! " 

In fact, very few teachers have failed to see at least one point where the 
management of schools (I do not say of their own schools) is faulty ; and physi- 
cians, in making their suggestions, have spoken particularly against those 
features of school liie which tend to produce anxiety and worry, as competi- 
tions and public examinations. 

5. — Bad Sanitary Condition of Schools, as a Cause. 

Of these, ventilation is the only one mentioned by teachers, who speak of it 
as bad in various degrees in twenty cases, and as good in two. 

6. — Dissipation out of School, as a Cause. 

Question to teachers : " Do school-girls of fifteen and upwards spend much 
of their evenings in company or at public places of amusement ? What kind 
of harm, and how much, do you think arises from this class of excitement as 
compared with school influences ? " 

This class of excitement was said to do more harm than study by twenty- 
one ; it was said by nine to do no special harm, in many cases because prohibited 
by the school ; and twelve state that that the habit is frequent in the place 
they write from. 

8\ — Health of Teachers, 

A question put in the circular addressed to teachers was answered as 
follows : — 

Health of teachers generally good, or no worse than that of other classes 5 

Might be good if they took fresh air, &c 2 

Very unhealthy vocation if they do not obey the laws of health , 2 

Health generally poor 9 

Not much better than that of sewing-girls 1 

They break unless we take great care of them ^ 1 

More liable to break down than pupils 5 

One of the occupations that bring most strain upon the nervous system 1 

Health sooner aflectcd than in other occupations .... 1 



1 For 7 see quotations on pages WW**^!* \ 



DR. LINCOLN ON HEALTH IN SCHOOLS. 23 

In conclusion, the following brief summary of the most conspicuous 
results of the investigation is presented : — 

1. Scliool-work, if performed in an unsuitable atmosphere, is peculiarly- 
productive of nervous fatigue, irritability, and exhaustion. 

2. By " unsuitable " is chiefly meant " close " air ; or air that is hot enough 
to flush the face, or cold enough to chill the feet, or that is " burnt " or in- 
fected with noxious fumes of sulphur or carbonic oxide. 

3. Very few schools are quite free from these faults. 

4. Anxiety and stress of mind, dependent mostly upon needless formalities 
in discipline, or unwise appeals to ambition, are capable of doing vast harm. 
It is hard to say how much is actually done ; but a strong sentiment against 
such injudicious methods is observed to be springing up in the minds of 
teachers. 

5. The amount of study required has not often been so great as would harm 
scholars whose health is otherwise well cared for. 

6. Teachers who neglect exercise and the rules of health seem to be almost 
certain to become sickly, or to " break down." 

7. Gymnastics are peculiarly needed by girls in large cities ; but with the 
present fashion of dress gymnastics are impracticable for larger girls. 

8. The health of girls at the period of the development of the menstrual 
function ought to be watched over with unusual care by persons possessed of 
tact, good judgment, and a personal knowledge of their characters. 

9. One of the greatest sources of harm is found in circumstances lying 
outside of scliool-life. The social habits of many older children are equally 
inconsistent with cood health and a frood education. 



EXTRACTS FKOM CORRESPONDENCE. 

From a Boston Physician. — "I have not infrequently met cases of consump- 
tion, that could be traced directly to over-stimidalion by examinations at the 
end of the school year. That is, the patients having kept up under inoi*- 
dinate strain during the term, made strong efforts to gain honors, and broke 
down immediately after, and when I saw them were far advanced in' 
phthisis. I have no doubt that confined and bad positions during study-hours, 
and want of exercise, had tlieir inflhience ; but that over-study was apparently 
the death-blow seemed evident. I have seen so many of such cases, that I 
now urge parents who have transmitted frail constitutions to their children, or 
whose children from any cause are feeble, not to permit them to go but ' half- 
time,' to school; and to leave as soon as the healtli wavers in the least." 

" Over stirauhition of the brain undoubtedly produces all the symptoms you 
mention, each child being affected with that form of complaint to which, from 
personal and hereditary peculiarities, he or she may be especially liable. 
What I have said particularly applies to public schools, where but little or no 
allowance can be made for idiosvncrasies. 



24 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

" Brain-work is constantly in excess of the capacity of the constitution to 
endure, and at tlie same time comply with the demands made upon it by 
other processes, such as growth, development, &c." 

The above is quoted as a strong, and perhaps exceptional opinion, held 
b}' an eminent specialist. In contrast to it see the following from a late emi- 
nent teacher in the same city : — 

From a Teacher in Boston. — " During my fifty years in a schoolroom, I have 
seen no cases of ill-health, which, in my opinion, could be justly attributed to 
the school. True it is, that ' headaches," &c., are many times more numerous, 
now than they were fifty years ago ; but this does not result so much from the 
fact that boys are worse than then (although it is unquestionably true that 
the sources of corruption are far more numerous ami wide-spread than for- 
merly), as they do from the altered style of living in the better part of the 
community. Boys and girls are not born with the constitutions of their grand- 
parents, and therefore they cannot endure so much." 

" As far as my own direct observations are concerned, I could refer to many 
such evils as you speak of in the case of teachers^ especially, or rather exclu- 
sively, among young women. ... I know of one case whei'e there was some, 
but not a strong tendency to mental disease, inherited in a young girl of fifteen, 
who evidently broke down, lost a vigorous, elastic condition of health, and 
became ill with melancholia of a severe type, attended with delusions and 
some stupor, simply from cruel overwork to stand high in her class and ' pass 
the examinations.*" 

" Yes : more especially have I observed these injuries resulting in young 
girls. I would likewise say, that, in addition to one or more of the symptoms 
which you enumerate, deformity, contracted chest, and distorted spine, are fre- 
quent results of overwork of the brain, combined with bad position and long- 
continued application." 

2. 

From a Massachusetts Phifsic'ian. — •' Through timidity and want of fore- 
sight, previous to entering school, the little children sutfer from inattention to 
the calls of nature. I think female teachers are very careless respecting their 
children in this matter, and personally I have known great suffering in conse- 
quence. This long-continued confinement of young children, I consider to be 
a very great evil. I can see no propriety in confining these children more 
than a very brief period at one time." 

A Grammar School. — "I have noticed irritability and languor among boys, 
caused, however, by self-abuse. The boys of the first class I always warn at 
the beginning of the school-year against this by no means uncommon evil. In 
classes lower, I do not hesitate to talk to boys individually when necessary. 
It is strange to me that parents, especially fathers, do not warn their boys 
against this vice in their early years. Of the great number of boys I have 



DR. LINCOLN ON HEALTH JN SCHOOLS. 25 

talked with, I have found but two who had ever been warned ; and, in every 
instance (?) the vice has been learned at the early age of nine or ten years ; 
in one instance at the age of five years." 

From a former Superintendent of an Insane Asylum. — " I must answer yoU 
from recollection. I have had one case of typho- mania, three of acute mania, 
six or seven of delusional disorder and great prostration, of female teachers from 
Boston and vicinity. I have seen a few cases of hysteria, and one of epilepsy 
(female teachers), all manifestly from over- work and anxiety of teaehing. The 
epileptic was manifestly suffering from the bad air of the schoolroom, and has 
made a good recovery, i.e., no fits for four years. 

3. 

From a Neiv England Normal Scliool. — " The work done by students requires 
constant application of the mind five days each week, of nine or ten hours' 
study; or ivom. forty five to fifty hours. I consider this too much. The ill 
effects of this pressure are obviated in good measure by, 1. Ten minutes' inter- 
mission each hour, with marching movements to and from recitation-rooms. 
2. By constant appeals to the perceptive faculties, and use of apparatus in 
objective methods of teaching. 3. By a regular daily exercise in light gym- 
nastics in hall, with music, for at least thirty minutes at close of afternoon 
session, with marches and great variety of movements. 4. By short terms of 
ten weeks each, thirty weeks in school-year, with two weeks' intermission 
between terms. 5. By voluntary self-discipline, which in the main is all that is 
needed of this class [^Normal] of pupils. My observation of these require- 
ments leads me to say that for adult students, many of them teachers, five 
rather than seven hours are sufficient in the building. . . . Generally., almost 
invariably, those wlio keep the exercise retain their health and mental power. 
Others, who do not exercise as enjoined, are more subject to irregular condi- 
tions of body and depression of mind under the discipline described above 
This is equally true of either sex." 



A Grammar School. — " The ventilation of most of our school-buildings is 
simply abominable. And I do not believe it will ever be much better until 
School Boards, and not Common Councils, build these structures. The school- 
building in which I am is a ' modern ' one, built three years ago. It is im- 
possible to keep the air from becoming unendurable in a very short time, 
except by opening the windows." 

From a New York Physician. — " One young gentleman (of most exemplary 
personal habits), who was studying hard for examination in a school of 
engineering where the curriculum was severe and the class-room mephitic, 
ran himself down into a condition of toxaemia and neurasthenia, which caused 
me some anxiety ; and he informed me that several of his classmates had com- 
pletely broken down under the same circumstances. In less degree, the conse- 
quences of excessive mental strain with insufficient exercise and ill-ventilated 



26 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMMNT OF HEALTH. 

rooms are things of almost daily experience. The injury is probably due, not 
so much to the amount of mental work in ordinarily robust individuals, as to 
the conditions of inadecjuate arterialization under which ihe brain is forced to 
perform this work." 



From an Academy for Girls, New Hampshire. — "I feel that much social relaxa- 
tion unfits the mind for the closest ap])lication. It sometimes takes a week to 
get over the efTect of an evening out, witli no great excitement. It affords 
topics of conversation on persons and things that do not tend to elevation, and 
the breaking up of the regular routine of study hours loosens the hold these 
hours had on the mind. One evil should be avoided. It is, parents and 
patrons sendin<j for pupils to go home on special occasions, such as dancing- 
parties at their own houses, and then sending them back to school, dragged out 
and exhausted, nervous and unfit for study. Three weeks will sometimes pass 
before the effect of such a visit passes away." 

From Calais, Maine. — "I have known, since 1869, while carefully watching 
fifteen hundred school-children in our schools, two girls injured by hard study* 
I have known more than five hundred injured by late hours and the excite- 
ments of social life, and more than fifty I can recall at this moment whom I 
know to have been seriously injured by late hours, party excitement, and pre- 
mature introduction to social life." 



A Girls' Private School. — ■ " It seems to me that among such scholars as I 
meet, the greatest difficulty lies in an incomplete adaptation to a changing 
phase of society. I mean, that, for the past twenty years the social, and what 
I should like to call the aesthetic, claims upon young girls have been constantly 
increasing, until they are incompatible with an amount of school-work that 
twenty years since did not seem unreasonable, and did not produce any bad 
results, so far as I may judge from the experience of my own contemporaries. 
Now, if all these outside claims are just and right, the school-demands must 
be in some way modified, of course ; but if they are, as I think they will 
prove, excessive, they will yield in time ; and, meanwhile, there must be such 
adaptation as is possible, and that mainly by individual effort. Then, when 
society recognizes that it should not expect from school-girls the artistic, 
musical, and dramatic experience of the accomplished woman of society ; when 
the mothers of our girls can moderate the excited cravings of the inexpe- 
rienced seeker of pleasure ; and when their physicians will inquire what has 
kept the healthy girls and women from nervous and other complaints, then I 
believe that the demands of society, and parents and physicians, will entirely 
coincide with those of the school-teachers, and with the best good of the 
scholars." 

A Seminary for Girls, New Jlnmpshire. — "School influences upon growing 
girls of thirteen and upwards, so far as my observation Ims cxtcndcii, have not 
been unfavorable to their development as women, nor injurious to their general 
health. I believe they should be carefully treated, and relieved from oppressire 
burdens and work, especially when they desire it, at stated periods, for a short 



DR. LINCOLN ON HEALTH IN SCHOOLS. 27 

time. Witb this care, -which cannot be so properly exercised in mixed as in 
separate schools, our young ladies niny complete a full course of solid and 
ornamental study, and come out in full vigor of body and mind." 

Principal of a Boston High School. — " Not unfrequently I see girls sufFering 
from headache or languor, wbich seems to me caused by tbe wear of school- 
life ; not merely by the work, but by the anxiety, the restraint, and confine- 
ment, of school. I have rarely seen boys of fair constitutions in our high 
school suffering from overwork, — not half a dozen cases in ten years. I have 
often noticed a great change in the appearance of girls after leaving school. 
Pale, thin faces grow fresh and plump in a few months. It seems to me desira- 
ble that girls should be educated as far as possible after fourteen by themselves, 
and without any stimulus further than that furnished by their desire to have 
their teachers' approval. In an experience of eight years in a private school 
for girls, I found no other stimulus necessary. I think any kind of emulation 
among girls is morally and physically hurtful. With boys the effect is certainly 
different, and is on the whole good." 

A Private School for Girls in Boston. — ''! have never made it an arbitrary 
rule to suspend or change the course of study, and with ordinary common-sense 
care with regard to clothing, and the surrounding pursuits and interests of life 
in young girlhood, there are but few who have not been able to be present and 
to do the usual amount of work. I think, as a general thing, I have observed 
keener nervous sensitiveness, and less concentration of thought perhaps, for the 
first year or so [of the period between fourteen and eighteen] ; but after this, 
if the rest of the nature has been developed healthily and wisely, I have 
usually found increased interest and power of comprehension and acquisition. 
... I believe, that, even in exceptional cases, a moderate use of the intellect 
tual faculties is of great benefit to mind and body." 

A Physician in Boston. — " The male sex, at about the age of puberty and 
while fitting for it, need looking after quite as much as the female sex, so far 
as head-work is concerned. . . . Both sexes, under circumstances, have the 
lessons to get out of school [in Boston], and sometnnes, I believe, at the cost 
of brains as well as body in after years." 



Principal of a Boston High School. — " Female teachers have generally more 
than the average strength of constitution ; but in our mixed schools there are 
few upon whom the worry of school teaching and discipline does not have a 
very marked effect." 

Principal of a Boston Grammar School. — '' The young lady teachers are 
many of them fresh from school, and the continuous work soon causes the 
health to fail. The practice recently inaugurated [in Boston] of exacting out- 
of-school work in perfecting themselves to teach special branches, has been a 
great tax upon their vitality." 

A Boston Grammar School — "A better chance to maintain good health 
than in any other calling open to the average class of women." 

Superintendent of Schools, Springfield, Mass. — " School-teaching is very ex- 
hausting. But most teachers are imprudent. If conscientious and ambitious, 



28 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

they over-work, and do not divert themselves sufficiently out of school. A 
■worn-out teacher is used up for this world. But the circumstances under 
Avhich they work have more to do in producing ill health than the work itself. 
I cannot think the occujiation, as such, particularly injurious. It seems to me 
otherwise." 



At the close of Dr. Lincoln's paper, the following paper was read by 
him in the absence of the author: — 



GYMNASTICS FOR SCHOOLS. 
By J. J. Putnam, M.D. Read at Detroit, May 12, 1875. 

For the purposes of this brief paper, which can claim to have a sug- 
gestive value only, I have thought it best, in considering the subject 
before us, to attemj^t to give answers as definitely as possible to the 
following three questions, which I think cover the points mainly at 
stake in the matter : — 

1. In what way, and to what extent, may gymnastic training be made 
useful in the education of scliool-children ? 

2. What means of securing it have been anywhere adopted, and with 
what results ? 

3. What means would be likely to insure the best results in our own 
schools ? 

The first question, as to the utility of gymnastic training for children 
in general, calls, perhaps, most of all for a definite answer ; for it would, 
I think, become evident to any one looking at all closely into the mat- 
ter, as it certainly has to me, that the greatest obstacle to the general 
introduction into schools, of any satisfactory system of physical training, 
would be in the want of definite appreciation, on the part of both the 
public at large and of controllers of school education, of the proper and 
possible value and aims of such a system. Those teachers are, I 
believe, in the minority, who regard the study of phj'sical culture as 
something worthy of being pursued in schools with the same method' 
and persistency that all are ready to accord to the training of the 
mind. Many of them feel a certain jealousy lest what they consider as 
the highest branches of education should suffer by the introduction of 
this new and apparentlj'^ less important study; not remembering that the 
proper aim of school education should be to fit us in every possible way 
for the work of our after-lives. Let it but be shown, however, that 
physical training of such a kind as can be obtained to advantage only 
under the guidance of skilled instructors is an important part of this 
preparation, and its right to a jjlace in the school, where alone such 
instruction can be liad, must impress itself upon all by an irresistible 



GYMNASTICS FOR SCHOOLS. 29 

logic. This clone, the question as to what particular system would best 
be adopted in special cases would soon be settled, and for this, as for 
other branches of school education, competent teachers would soon be 
found. 

I will here forestall the main objection made to tlie introduction of 
any system of gymnastic exercises into schools, — viz., that such exer- 
cises could never be as useful as play in the open air, — by calling atten- 
tion to two points : first, that however true this might be for children 
who were by nature strong, and inclined to follow outdoor sports, yet 
to those of whom a certain number are to be found in everj' school, who, 
if left to themselves, would take little or no exercise out of doors, — to 
these, at least, the influence of school gymnastics might make the differ- 
ence of health instead of invalidism in after-life ; second, that in cer- 
tain important respects the benefits to be expected from outdoor play 
and from systematic physical training are essentially different. In the 
case of the latter, it is not so much the enforcement of a certain gross 
amount of general bodily exercise that would constitute its chief value, 
but rather the careful and scientific training of the various groups of 
muscles of the body, whether it be those concerned in carrying on the 
functions most necessary to life and health, as that of respiration, or 
those employed in walking, running, and standing erect. 

It is manifest that for ends like these the aid of skilled teachers and 
well-considered methods of instruction would be absolutely requisite. 
I shall then endeavor to show that systematic school exercises may be 
of service in the education of children, first by promoting general 
health, second by bestowing certain special and ^ highly important 
accomplishments. 

In discussing the possible benefit of school gymnastics to the general 
health, I believe it to be best to refer but little to physiological expla- 
nations and theories, the validity of which in some cases is still an open 
question, in order not to awaken in the minds of scientific and thought- 
ful persons a spirit of distrust rather than a spirit of confidence. 

The relation between indiscriminate physical exercise and the general 
health is certainly not one of direct proportion. With adults, at least, 
great muscular development is neither necessary nor directly conducive 
to good health, valuable as it may be indirectlj'' or as an accomplishment. 
Athletes are by no means always among the healthiest persons; and, 
on the other hand, we can all recall within the circle of our own friends 
instances of the combination of perfect health with only moderate 
strength of limb. It was commonly stated, during the late war, that 
the young men of the city were able to stand the hardships of cam- 
paign life better than their more muscular brothers from the country. 
I do not mean to under-estimate the immense value of great strength, 



30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

considered as an accomplishment merely; and still less would I under- 
value its tendency to lead its owner into the open air, where other and 
more essential elements of good health are to be found; nor would I' 
deny that with growing children the importance to the health, of a large 
amount of outdoor exercise, may be comparatively greater than with 
adults. I desire only to place in stronger relief the statement that, 
even for children, systematic training, when properly directed, may be 
of value to the health, although it may not involve any large amount 
of physical exercise. One way in which it can be made pre-eminently 
useful is by helping to perfect the all-important process of respiration. 
That much needs to be done and can be done in this direction, was 
shown to some extent in the case of the children of the Boston schools, 
by Prof. Monroe, during the few years of his successful teaching. It 
seems, at first thought, as if the power of breathing properly were given 
us, in most cases at least, already jierfected by Xature ; or, at all events, 
as if its development were something beyond our own control. In fact, 
however, this is far from true. The singing-master has to work hard 
and long to enable his pupils to sustain a good tune through a few bars 
of music ; orators with fine voices are rare among us ; and yet, with 
the basis given by proper school-training, we could often perfect our- 
selves in these accomplishments by almost unconscious practice. The 
power to do these things is not, to be sure, necessary to good health: 
in fact, the conditions of good health (if by that be understood the 
power of doing, without injury or suffering, the work which is required 
of one) must vary with the habits of each individual ; and for one lead- 
ing a life of idleness they might dwindle to a minimum, so far as phys- 
ical exercise is concerned; but the man or woman, in our average society, 
whom a short hill or a flight of stairs obliges to slacken their pace for 
want of breath, or whom an enforced run to the cars may seriously 
injure, cannot be said to possess that degree of development of the 
power of respiration that the conditions of health demand in their 
case. The nervous processes involved in breathing properly are, indeed, 
largely automatic in their character; but, in order that the complicated 
machinery of the automaton shall work satisfactorily, it must first be 
put iu order ; and to do this must be the work of the intelligence. 
Nature is not a lavish giver, or only to. the few; and' any thing like 
perfection in development, we must win for ourselves by careful study. 
Furthermore, it is beyond question, that such systematic education of 
the functions of respiration might, and often does, help to save one 
endowed with less than the average power of resistance, from lingering 
and fatal diseases of the lungs, — so much so that tlie practice of exer- 
cises in breathing, even in a crude form, is fre(piently prescribed by 
physicians in the treatment of such cases. 



GYMNASTICS FOR SCHOOLS. 31 

The best treatise upon tlie proper method of educating the breathing 
powers and the voice, that I have been able to find, is the little book 
by Prof. Monroe, whose name has already been mentioned. Most of 
the German and French works on gymnastics, with the exception 
of those treating of their use in disease, complete as they are in other 
respects, appear to be somewhat deficient in this. For the exercise 
recommended by Prof. Monroe, no apparatus or special costume is 
required. For proper walking and running exercises, a large empty 
room would be almost essential. 

A proper system of physical culture in schools would also have 
reference to healthful positions in sitting or standing, more or less 
directly connected with the general health ; of which, however, I will 
not now speak, further than to say that in connection with the question 
of school desks, which is being studied by another member of this 
department, that of the best method of developing the muscles of the 
back will have, sooner or later, to be considered. 

If it is concluded that our children, like our ancestors, should sit 
erect and unsupported while they study, their muscles should certainly 
be so trained that they should be able to do so with the least possible 
fatigue, and the least possible temptation to sink into slouching 
postures. 

Apart from the relation between physical training and the general 
health under ordinary circumstances, there are certain injurious influ- 
ences peculiar to school life, the effect of which the school is surely 
bound to neutralize so far as possible. 

Chief among these influences are, first, that of continued study 
through several hours, in tlie course of which intelligent application is 
likely to degenerate into listless mental drifting ; not to speak of the 
ill effects, especially upon the circulation ,of the blood, which attend 
sitting in one position for so long a time. I find that this is already 
well recognized by many teachers, as well as the advantage of break- 
ing the morning session by a few moments of gymnastic exercise. 
Second, that of the foul air, which in a schoolroom accumulates 
so rapidly, and of which, with our present insufficient means of 
ventilation, we are hardly able to get rid, except by a thorough 
opening of windows, during which . process scholars would be liable 
to take cold if not fenced against it by active exercise. Third, 
improper positions in sitting, which give rise, with a frequency 
of which teachers are perhaps hardly aware, to deformities^ which in 
after-life bring the scholars under the doctors' care. Thus I have it 
on good autliority, that in a school of 731 pupils, at Neufcluitel, 62 
cases of deviation of the spinal column were observed among 350 
boys, and 156 cases among 381 girls. These results are further stated 



^2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

not to differ materially from those of examinations made in German 
SL'hools. According to Adams, in 83 per cent of 782 pupils in which 
this deviation occurred, it was towards the right, probably in conse- 
quence of writing at unsuitable desks. According to Eulenburg, in 
92 per cent of 300 cases the curvature was also to the right. It is 
true that these curvatures are not always associated with public 
health, since they sometimes occur in a slight degree to the strong 
and well ; and it is true also, that they may arise under influences not 
peculiar to school life, such as the preponderating use of one or the 
other arm for any purpose. There can be but little doubt, however, 
that to the habit of writing at unsuitable desks belongs the largest 
share of blame. 

It will be noticed, that, in the statistics which I have just given, the 
spinal curvatures were found to occur with much greater frequency 
among girls than among boys, — partly due, no doubt, to the fact that 
they play fewer active games, and are in general more restrained in 
their movements. In the brief report of a recent meeting at Berlin, 
of some of the highest authorities of German^'-, called together to con- 
sider the entire subject of the school education of girls, I find a notice 
of an address by Herr Raaz, principal of a school in Berlin, in which 
he speaks of the common occurrence of these spinal curvatures in 
his school, and says that he has found the use of gymnastics to be 
powerful in preventing them. 

I may anticipate somewhat by mentioning that at the end of their 
meeting it was unanimously voted to be very desirable that the study 
of gymnastics should be introduced as an obligatory subject into the 
programme of instruction in schools for girls. 

I cannot leave the subject of health-giving relations of judicious 
physical exercise, without calling attention to the fact that without it 
lectures on hygiene and physiology must lose one-half of their value. 
The scholar must have been made to feel the benefit and sense of satis- 
faction resulting from the proper use of his muscles before lectures on ' 
the subject can be turned by his brain into working influences. Just 
as the artist's eye detects a slight blemish in a painting to which one 
less trained would be indiff"erent, or as a skilled musician shrinks at the 
sound of a false note, so one to whom the conditions of health have 
become practically familiar, whether it.be good air to breathe, or the 
proper use of the muscles of the chest and back, is far more keenly 
sensitive to the failure of these conditions than he could possibly be if 
they had been known to him as intellectual conceptions merely. 

The systems of exercises which would meet the ends hitherto referred 
to may be found in various books upon gymnastics, many of which are 
known to you all. Most of these systems do not require a special hall, 



GYMNASTICS FOR SCHOOLS. 33 

but only that there shall be room enough in the neighborhood of each 
desk — as a successful teacher writes — for the pupil to be able to take 
one step in each direction, and swing the arms freely in all directions. 
They may be used daily or even several times a day for a few months, 
for instance, immediately after a recitation ; as, indeed, is already done 
in some of our schools. 

I should be glad to speak of the value of physical exercise regarded 
as an accomplishment in training the scholar in certain special respects. 
The boy or girl who can climb and jump and run as they are taught to 
do in Swedish schools, and can do so better than his or her compan- 
ions, has an advantage over them to be compared with that given by 
the power of speaking another tongue, 

A large hall, with a few simple pieces of apparatus, is all that would 
be needed for these exercises ; and the instruction need be given but 
once or twice a week. Such a hall is coming to be considered a sine 
qua non in the best common schools in Europe ; so that Mr. Philbrick, 
late Superintendent of the Boston schools, on his return from a recent 
visit to Europe, writes that " in Vienna every modern schoolhouse has 
its gymnasium, and every school one or more gymnastic teachers, no 
special teachers in this branch being employed in the public schools in 
the city." 

A third important work which its advocates say is done by gymnas- 
tic training in connection with school life consists in inculcating a 
sense of discipline and self-subordination in the minds of the scholars 
which serves to increase the efficiency of the school in its other 
departments. 

On this point I shall not dwell, because, so far as I have found, no 
two opinions are entertained as to the reasonableness of the claim. 
Whatever else may be said about the desirability of having military 
drill in higher schools and colleges, no one, I think, acquainted with 
the subject, would hesitate to give it his support in this respect. 
- Leaving now the health and strength giving influence of physical 
culture, let us pass for a moment to not the least important of its rela- 
tions ; viz., that in which it is directly associated with a more purely 
mental, or, more strictly speaking, artistic cultivation, keeping to the 
expression and thereby to the more perfect conception of feelings and 
emotions that are not sufficiently precise to be satisfactorily translated 
into words, but that need another language analogous to that of music. 
It is universally conceded, that the use of the art of sculpture in some 
of the nations of ancient Greece was due, among other causes, to the 
strong hold upon the people of that physical culture which in other 
respects was productive also of such wonderful results. Even if not 
themselves practised orators and athletes, the artists of Greece lived 
surrounded by those who were such, and thus imbibed their spirit. 



34 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

It is true that we strive to foster an artistic sense among our chil- 
dren by familiarizing them with the manifestations of grace and 
strength in the human form, in providing our schoolrooms with casts 
of ancient statues, &c. ; but we forget that the artists who modelled 
them, and whose fine taste we hope to appreciate if not to acquire, 
must, to some extent at least, have derived their power to do so from 
observing men and women around them, with whom physical grace and 
the control of the body had been a matter of lifelong study ; and partly, 
also, as the natural outgrowth of their own pursuit of ph3^sical culture. 
It is surely but natural, that the keen sense of appreciation, which only 
an expert can feel, of the exact meaning of this or that poise of the 
body, of the economy of power and the hidden strength implied in it, 
should help to awaken in the artistic mind the desire to embody these 
conceptions in durable forms. 

To foster to any great extent the art of sculpture, may not lie in the 
province of the common school, any more than it ia in its province to 
foster any other of the special accomplishments to any extent ; but it 
certainly does belong to it, so far as possible, to prepare the soil in 
which such an accomplisliment might grow. Furthermore we must 
remember, that these works of art are beautiful only because thej^ rep- 
resent the possibilities of human development, and that the thing 
itself should be of more importance in our estimation than its image. 

Rev. Charles Kingsley in writing on this subject, after referring 
enthusiastically to the Grecian system of education, intellectual and 
physical, says, "Now, if the promoters of higher education for women 
will teach girls not only to understand the Greek tongue, but to copy 
somewhat of the Greek physical training; of that 'music and gymnas- 
tic' which helped to make the cleverest race of the Old World, the 
ablest race likewise, then they will earn the gratitude of the patriot 
and the physiologist, by doing their best to stay the downward ten- 
dencies of the physique, and therefore ultimately of the morale, in the 
coming generation of English women." 

PAKT SECOND. 

In referring to the history of the practical introduction of gymnas- 
tic training into schools, the countries of Europe, where this study has 
been making constant headway during the last half-century, naturally 
claim our first attention. 

You will not be surjjrised to hear that during this time, as at the 
present day, the education of boys in this respect has received a larger 
share of thought and favor, from governments and from the public, 
than that of girls. It must, however, be borne in mind, that this is by 
no means because students of the subject have considered that girls 



GYMNASTICS FOE SCHOOLS. 35 

are not in need of physical training. On the contrary, it has heen 
everywliere distinctly understood and expressed, that it is partly on 
account of the claims of the army, and partly because, from their 
organization and habits, they repay better a certain killed of physical 
training, that the boys have received superior advantages. 

Speaking roughly, there are three well-recognized systems of gym- 
nastics, all of them at least half a century old, that, pure or mixed, are 
in use over most of the Continent of Europe at the present day. 

1. The system of Frederick Jahn, born in Germany in 1778, which was 
framed rather to create athletes and soldiers, than to answer the more generally 
useful ends of physical culture, especially so far as girls are concerned. Its 
general adoption in Prussia and Denmark has, in fact, fairly helped to keep 
the claims of girls far in the background. 

2. That of the Swede, Ling, born in 1776, who developed more fully than 
any one the free exercises of the body and limbs, performed with little or no 
apparatus, such as are now everywhere more or less in use, striving also, with 
zeal that rather overreached itself, to place his system upon a physiological 
basis. 

3. That of Spiers in South Germany, born in 1810, who, working with 
unbounded personal enthusiasm, studied particularly the exercises requiring 
the concerted action of a number of persons. These exercises found their full 
development in a sort of drill without arms, although freer movements, such 
as those of various dances, were also represented in them. 

It vpas my original intention to present some details of these differ- 
ent sys'tems before you ; but as this paper has already occupied so much 
time, and as they would be_ scarcely intelligible except to special 
teachers of this branch, I have thought it best to omit them. I do not, 
indeed, feel myself able to discuss their comparative merits fairly ; and 
I do not believe the time has arrived when it is important for us to do 
so. 

If we look at the now prevailing condition of gymnastic instruction 
for girls in Europe, we find it to be as follows : — 

In Holland gymnastics are not taught in the primary schools in the country 
towns, but are taught at all schools in the large cities, in large halls kept for the 
pui-pose. This instruction is given to both boys and girls. None but the eldest 
classes use exercises that require apparatus of any kind. Instructors in gym- 
nastics, both male and female, have abundant opportunity to fit themselves at the 
general normal schools, which are supported wholly or in part by government ; 
and the male teachers are obliged to have passed an examination, theoretical 
and practical, in that branch. Furthermore, in order to supplement the efforts 
of government, a society called " Society for the Public Welfare " has insti- 
tuted schools for gymnastics at several of the large cities, — Groningen, Ams- 
terdam, Rotterdam, &c. 



36 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

In Denmark gymnastics have been an obligatory study since 1814, both at 
the normal and at the general schools ; and at Copenhagen there is a special 
institute for the instruction of professors of gymnastics. This institute is 
under military charge, and Its spirit is felt everywhere. The exercises have, 
however, a military turn. 

In Sweden the celebrated system of Ling is an obligatory study in all the 
public schools, three to six hours a week being devoted to it, subject to the 
advice of a physician who is appointed to examine each scholar at the begin- 
ning of the school term. For the education of teachers there is a great central 
institute at Stockholm ; and the graduates from the normal schools must more- 
over have passed a special examination in this branch. A former pupil of 
this Swedish system has established a gymnasium at Boston recently, and has 
taught also at the Girls' High School with excellent results, as far as could be 
judged in so short a time. A large part of the instruction is in the so-called 
" free exercises," including proper methods of sitting, standing, lying, walking, 
running, jumping, as well as exercises in concert, games, &c. The aim of 
these free exercises is to call into action in turn, the greater part of the volun- 
tary muscles of the body; and with an intelligent, earnest teacher to direct 
them, there is no end to the modifications and combinations that can be made, 
calling for precision and strict attention and skill on the part of the pupils. As 
in all other exercises, the consciousness of progress made toward a good which 
still remains always in advance is always found to be attended with a sense of 
pleasure ; and, the better the pupils are required to perform the exercises, the 
more they enjoy them. 

In Prussia gymnastic culture has been obligatory in the primary schools, and 
indeed throughout Germany, in the schools for boys, is almost everywhere an 
obligatory study, although, except in the large cities, it is not systematically 
pursued. The official manual is a little book written by Angerstein, the Chief 
of the Municipal Normal School of Gymnastics of Berlin. The fact, that the 
importance is recognized of having the instruction in the branch systematic 
and thorough, is shown by the care which is taken to provide abundantly for 
the instruction of teachers. 

At Berlin, for example, three different varieties of diploma of professor of 
gymnastics are conferred. These are: 1. The diploma of the Central Insti- 
tute, or its equivalent, that of the Municipal Normal School, or of a special 
examining commission, which gives the right, to instruct in the schools and 
seminaries of the higher grades throughout the State. 2. The diploma of 
those normal schools in which the study of gymnastics has been obligatory 
since 1854. This diploma constitutes a recommendation for its holder in 
seeking a place at any of the large schools of the city. 3. The ordinary in- 
struction diploma, accompanied with a certificate that its holder has followed a 
certain course of instruction in gymnastics at one of the normal schools, and is 
fitted to teach it among his other duties at any small school in the city or country. 
The examination for the higher diplomas is written, practical, and oi'al, requiring 
a knowledge of the various methods of instruction, the literature and history of 
the subject, and the rules for the construction of the apparatus, &c. 

In Prussia, in striking contrast to the excessive attention paid by the gov- 
ernment to the gymnastic training of boys, little or nothing has been done for 



GYMNASTICS FOR SCHOOLS. 37 

the girls except through private means. Thus, out of a population of thirty- 
nine thousand girls at Berlin, seventeen hundred and forty-five only, or four 
and a half per cent from nine schools, received any degree of instruction in 
1873. That this neglect has not been due to a want of appreciation of the 
importance of physical training for girls, is sliown by the simple fact, that when 
in 1864 the Gymnastic Society of Berlin, supported by a recognized medical 
commission, petitioned the Minister of Education to initiate some changes in 
this respect, they were answered, that although fully appreciating the necessity 
of gymnastic training for gii-ls and ready to encourage private efforts to ob- 
tain it, the government was unwilling to take the initiatory steps. Manifestly 
the needs of the army was a stronger influence with it than the desire to im- 
prove the general physical culture of the people. 

It will be remembered, that in the early part of this paper I said 
that attention had been called to this point in Berlin, at a recent 
meeting of teachers of the higher girls' schools ; and I may add that, 
after the discussion, an officer of the government stated that changes 
were already in prospect in the organization of the Great Central 
Institute for teachers at Berlin, favoring the education of female 
teachers in this branch. In this connection another point may be' 
mentioned which directly interests us; viz., the habit, both in Prussia 
and Holland and other places, of encouraging the study of physical 
culture among actual teachers in the schools by giving them opportu- 
nity of attending closely, during three or four weeks in each year, to 
gymnastic courses at some good institution; the government supplying 
their places while absent, and even paying their expenses. 

In other provinces of Germany, more is done in the way of instruction for 
girls, mainly in the shape of cburses for which a small fee is paid ; such instruc- 
tion is given under the auspices of that great gymnastic confederation which 
extends all over Germany, counting more than a hundred and fifty thousand 
members, and serving to keep alive a love of physical culture throughout the 
land. 

In England there is no obligatory instruction in this branch ; but earnest ap- 
peals have been made for its introduction. 

In France, Austria, and Switzerland, it is made obligatory by laws which, in 
the two latter countries at least, are thoroughly carried into execution. Of 
the capital of Austria we have already spoken in an earlier part of the 
paper. 

In Switzerland, the importance of the subject is fully recognized ; and the 
study of gymnastics is, nominally at least, obligatory. Here also military drill, 
the merits of which as compared with other kinds of physical trainhig I shall 
not now discuss, is very much in vogue. 

Of the history of physical training in this country, I need not speak 
at length. It is true that something has been done by general regula- 
tion in certain places, — for instance, in Boston, where at this moment 



38 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

a rule exists that a few minutes of each half-session in the public schools 
should be devoted to phj^sical exercise ; but systematic attention to the 
subject pushed to the point of success has been due to private enter- 
prise. 

The number of these individual instances, however, and the degree 
of their success, have been great enough to warrant the conclusion that 
under proper auspices it would be both practicable and useful to intro- 
duce physical ti'aining as an obligatory study more generally into our 
schools, as may be seen from the remarks in the paper on school 
hygiene by Dr. F. Winsor, in the report of the Massachusetts State 
Board of Health, of January, 1874. The most notable cases of suc- 
cess that have come to my knowledge have occurred in the Boston 
schools during the period of Prof. Monroe's teaching, though he 
directed his attention particularly to the cultivation of the voice ; at 
Vassar College ; at the State Normal School at Philadelphia; and at 
Amherst; not to speak of the many schools where g^'mnastics have 
been used to a greater or less extent, nor of the public and private 
teaching of Dr. Dio Lewis, Dr. Mason, and others. The example set 
by Amherst College is peculiarly instructive. It is now a dozen years 
since a number of gentlemen, officers and friends of the college, solved 
in the affirmative the question as to whether or not a system of light 
gymnastics, to be practised daily, could be made at once interesting 
and beneficial to college students of an age when a revolt against irk- 
some and tedious tasks is most in order. The system is established 
now on a firm basis ; and the founders can point with pride to the testi- 
mony of graduates and undergraduates, and to a diminished sick-list, 
in proof of the success of their undertaking. 

Yet their materials are of the simplest order, consisting of a piano 
and wooden dumb-bells ; and their exercises are invented by themselves. 
They have, of course, had their slight ups and downs, from time to 
time, and have come to some interestiug conclusions, )ne of which is, 
that the accompaniment of music is a sine qua non of the success of 
the enterprise. 

PART THIRD. 

In recommending the adoption of a practical system of gymnastics 
in our own schools, there remains but little more for me to say. All 
authorities agree, that teachers skilled in the work, and convinced of 
its importaiice, are necessary to the success of any system. We must, 
then, endeavor to obtain a large number of good teachers ; and these 
would naturally be drawn from the normal schools ; and with them 
lies, to some extent, the key to the situation. A sufficient number of 
teachers, for these schools at least, could be obtained either from abroad 
or at home, — for example, graduates of the schools and colleges already 



GYMNASTICS FOR SCHOOLS. 39 

mentioned, and others like them, — as has already been done to a certain 
extent. The final aim would be to fit all teachers for giving instruc- 
tion in this branch ; and a step in this direction might be taken, by 
making arrangements by which teachers could leave their schools for 
two or three weeks at a time, in order to attend gymnastic courses. 

As to the system itself, it seems to me, that there should be 
exercises of some sort once or twice daily, for a few moments only, as 
is largely done already ; and, two or three times a week, more extended 
instruction be given. If, at the same time, a fondness for physical 
culture could be made to spread from the teacher among the pupils, 
and from them again among the public, mjich good might be indirectly 
accomplished. The conclusions arrived at by the Belgian Commission, 
so often referred to, are very interesting in this connection. They 
review with some care the comparative merits of the system in which 
fixed apparatus is emploj^ed, and that in which none or very little 
such is used, and give their opinions in favor of the latter ; at the 
same time specifying with minuteness exactly what pieces of movable 
or fixed apparatus they consider permissible. 

They condemn the complicated systems in use in many places, which 
have for their aim, the acquiring of great strength, and the power to 
perform athletic feats, as objectionable and impracticable; and quote 
the opinions of gymnasts and experts as to the great value of the free 
exercises ; and recommend lastly, that these exercises should be 
practised twice daily, and directed by the teachers at large, who should 
receive their instruction at normal schools, where the subject should be 
made obligatory. Whatever be the merits of any practical system, 
however, it must fail of accomplishing its object, if not nourished and 
supported by the conviction and enthusiasm of its teachers and the 
public. 

Inasmuch as greater weight is attached to the testimony of practical 
workers in any field, than to that of theorizers only, I shall ask your 
attention for a moment to a few extracts of letters, from teachers of 
high rank, in various parts of the country, upon the subject with which 
we have been dealing. From a distant State one writes, — 

"They (physical exercises) should not only have a place in the daily pro- 
gramme, but their observance should be as regular as that of any other exer- 
cise. The tendency of the system of graded schools is to limit the work done, 
to the course definitely laid down in the several grades, and to limit it -still 
further within this course to those topics which are made the subject of 
examination in passing from one grade to another. In teaching these, the 
teacher expends largely his time and energy. Now, as physical exercise has 
not been placed on a level with the scholastic work of the school, made com- 
pulsory to all, and a condition to promotion, it has not generally received 



40 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

regular and systematic attention. Our schools are, in the main, shaped by 
public sentiment, and do move efficiently much in advance of popular opinion, 
as represented by the school-officers of the country." 

The principal of a *' girls' normal school " in one of the large cities 
writes, — 

" The most extraordinary results have been produced. Before the intro- 
duction of this subject (physical culture), the exceptions to the rule were those 
who did not have the headache : now tJije exceptions are those who do have 
have it. Upon examination, we have found that systematic instruction in this 
direction necessarily breaks up the injurious habit of tight lacing, from the 
fact that the pupils must wear loose dresses upon those days set apart for 
j)ractice ; and the consequence is, healthy, vigorous, rosy-cheeked girls." 

Miss , who has managed this department of the school just mentioned, 

" with great success for several years," writes, " There is, I am sorry to say, a 
deplorable la(.'k of interest here, as elsewhere, in the subject of physical educa- 
tion, . . . while our future men and women, forced to sit by the hour with 
cramped muscles and contracted chests, in schoolrooms where the air is foul 
with many breaths, will graduate quite probably with active minds, but almost 
certainly with enervated, undeveloped bodies. . . . There is but one public 
school in this neighborhood at the present time, where there is a department 
of physical education conducted upon these comlitions (persistent systematic 
training). ... To establish such a department, demands but little change in 
the present school system, since almost any schoolroom may be transformed 
almost instantaneously into a gymnasium, no apparatus being required for the 
lower grades, and only a few light implements carried in the hands for the 
more advanced pupils, and each scholar needing only space enough upon the 
floor for a step in each direction, and room to straighten the arms in front and 
at the sides. Of the pupils, the requirement is slight, being merely that the 
dress shall be short enough to leave the feet unencumbered, loose enough to 
admit of a full inhalation without feeling the clothes at the waist or across the 
chest, and large enough to permit the free play of every muscle in the body. 
For this, no special costume would be required, except in the highest grades. 
Music is a great addition to the exercise, but not a necessity. But the great 
difficulty, and in fact the only serious one, is the dearth of regularly trained 
teachers of gymnastics, who are not only fully prepared for the work, but who 
are enthusiastic in the cause, and able to impart their information to others. 
This arises from the low standard of physical culture admitted by public 
opinion. Let it once be required, that those who teach this branch shall of 
necessity be regularly trained, and there will be a supply of good teachers in a 
marvellously short time." 

The principal of the school last referred to touches, as it seems to 
me, upon a point of greatest practical importance w^hen he says that 
the introduction of light gymnastics into his school has done something 
toward initiating a real reform in the dress of the girls. Enough is 
said in these days of the evil results that follow upon tight lacing and 



GYMNASTICS FOE SCHOOLS. 41 

the wearing of dresses whicli do not admit of the free use of the arms; 
and yet the practical work of conversion goes on but slowly : if, how- 
ever, the rules of the school obliged the girls to wear a more reasonable 
dress two or three times a week when the exercises were performed, it 
might fairly be expected that the real merits would be recognized and 
remembered. The arguments of comfort are stronger than those of 
persuasion. 

In conclusion I wish to make mention of a few of the best books 
upon gymnastic training, in order that it may be seen how much atten- 
tion the subject has attracted in different parts of the world, and the 
direction in which its supporters are working. The first of which I 
shall speak is a closely printed book of about four hundred pages, 
called " Statistik und Schul-Turners in Deutschland " (Statistics of 
Gymnastic Instruction in the Schools of Germanj'^), published by the 
National Turnerschaft in 1874, and giving accurate statistics of the 
extent to which gymnastics is actually practised in every school 
throughout Germany and Austria. It contains, besides, an apparently 
complete statement of the German literature on the subject, comprising 
more than a hundred books, together with a variety of other facts com- 
piled with the precision in which German statistical works are known 
to excel. 

Another notable work is the " Theoretisches Handbuch filr Turner," 
by Ang'erstein, director of the Stiidtische Turnhalle in Berlin. It is 
made up mainly by lectures given by him in his course for the instruc- 
tion of teachers. It treats of the elements of human anatomy and 
physiology, the history of. the use of gymnastics among the ancients, 
and its introduction into Europe, as well as the practical details of a 
manual. The subject of gymnastics for girls is thoroughly discussed 
in a book of four hundred pages by Herr Kloss, who holds in Dresden 
a similar position to that of Angerstein in Berlin. Another excellent 
and similar work upon the same subject was published in 1872 by 
Schettler, a director in Plauen ; and in both of them a good deal of 
space is given to the description of games to be played out of doors, 
many of them accompanied with songs of which the music is given. 
The aesthetic side of the subject is presented in a book, among others, 
upon the Gymnastic Culture of the Greeks, by Otto Yager. 

Of the books in the French language, I will mention only the 
" Gymnastique Populaire Raisonne," by Junot and Sanglet, published 
in Neufchatel in 1873 ; of those in English, two books by Archibald 
MacLaren of the Oxford gymnasium, meant rather for colleges than 
schools; several by Matthias Eoth of London ; and in this country tlie 
well-known books by Dr. Dio Lewis, who writes with vigor of the 
importance of gymnastic instruction, and gives some exercises invented 



42 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

by himself; and the manual by Prof. Monroe of Boston, already 
mentioned. 

The manual of exercises in use at Amherst, invented largely by its 
author, Prof. E. H. Barlow of 1866, the captain of their gymnastic class, 
has also been published. A more detailed account of these works will 
not now be necessary. Enough has been said to show the spirit in 
which the subject has been approached by experts ; and those who wish 
to give it more careful study will find the materials ready to their 
hands. 



At the session for discussing the Effects of School Life upon the 
Eyes of Children, a paper was read by Dr. Webster of New York, 
embodying the statistical results of the investigations now in progress 
under the direction of Dr. C. E. Agnew. The work is still incomplete, 
and will doubtless require one year more, at the least, before it can be 
published as a whole. The following is from an abstract of the paper, 
made by Dr. Agnew : — 

EXAMINATIONS OF THE EYES OP AMERICAN SCHOOL CHILDREN. 

European observers have demonstrated the fact, that during school-life 
there are developed in the eyes of scholars, diseases which increase in fre- 
quency and gravity from the primary to the university grades) iX is not 
necessary to repeat here a review of the woi'k "^ Cohn, Erismann, and others, 
as that has already been done elsewhere. Our object now is, to begin a state- 
ment of the result of preliminary examinations made in New York, Brooklyn 
and Cincinnati, on the same subject. In these cities, the eyes of rcholars, 
2,884 in number (the eyes, and not the scholars, are enumerated, as there is 
frequently a difference between the two eyes of one person), of both sexes, 
ranging in age from six to twenty-six years, were examined, and the conditions 
as to the refraction and diseases noted and tabulated. In the same connection, 
the state of the schoolrooms as to light, desks, heating, and ventilation was 
observed ; as also the length and distribution of study-hours, and other facts 
affecting health. 

In Cincinnati, O., 1,264 eyes of scholars were examined by Dr. Ayers and 
Dr. D. Booth Williams. About one-third of these belonged to the district 
schools, one-third to the intermediate, and the remaining third to the normal 
and high schools. In the district schools, 13.3 per cent were near-sighted 
(11.3 of the boys, and 15.3 of the girls). In the intermediate schools, 13.8 per 
cent were near-sighted (9.5 percent of the boys, and 18.1 percent of the girls). 
In the normal and higli schools, 22.8 per cent were near-sighted (22.2 per 
cent of the boys, and 23.2 per cent of the girls). 

Dr. J. S. Prout and Dr. Arthur Mathewson examined 600 eyes of students 
at the Polytechnic, Brooklyn, N.Y., all boys, 284 belonging to the academic, 
and 316 to the collegiate department. In the academic department, 9.2 
per cent were near-sighted, and in the collegiate department 21.8 per 



RULES FOR THE CARE OF THE EYES. 43 

cent were near-sighted. Dr. William Cheatham examined 1,020 eyes of 
students in the New York College, New York, all boys; 670 belonging to 
the introductory class, 210 to the Freshmen, 110 to the Sophomores, and 30 
to the Juniors. In the introductory class, which is made up entirely of stu- 
dents who have passed the public schools, 21.9 percent were near-sighted; 
of the eyes of Freshmen, 26.2 per cent were near-sighted ; of the Sophomores, 
22.7 per cent were near-sighted ; of the Juniors examined, 50 per cent were 
near-sighted. The number of Juniors examined was too small, however, to be 
of any scientific value. 

The tables show that staphyloma posticum, one of the gravest organic 
changes in progressive near-sightedness, increased from 0.5 per cent in the 
district schools, to 7.6 per cent in the intermediate, and 10.4 per cent in the 
normal and high schools. 

The following paper was presented, but not read, at the same 
session : — 

Rules for the Care. of the Eyes. 

By Dk. D. F. Lincoln, Secketaey of the Department of Health, 

When writing, reading, drawing, sewing, &c., always take care that 

(a.) The i-oom is comfortably cool, and the feet warm ; 

(&.) There is nothing tight about the neck ; 

(c.) There is plenty of light, without dazzling the eyes ; 

((/.) The sun does not shine directly on the object we are at work upon; 

(e.) The light does not come from in front : it is best when it comes over the 
left shoulder ; 

(/.) The head is not very much bent over the work ; 

(^r.) The page is nearly perpendicular to the line of sight; that is, that the 
eye is nearly opposite the middle of the page, for an object held slanting is not 
seen so clearly; 

(/«.) That the page, or other object, is not less than fifteen inches from the 
eye. 

Nearsightedness is apt to increase rapidly when a person wears, in reading, 
the glasses intended to enable him to see distant objects. 

In any case, when the eyes have any defect, avoid fine needlework, drawing 
of fine maps", and all such work, except for very short tasks, not exceeding half 
an hour each, and in the morning. 

Never study or write before breakfast by candle-light. 

Do not lie down when reading. 

If your eyes are aching from firelight, from looking at the snow, from over- 
work, or other causes, a pair of colored glasses may be advised, to be used for 
a while. Light blue or grayish blue is the best shade ; but these glasses are 
likely to be abused, and usually are not to be worn, except under medical 
advice. Almost all those persons who continue to wear colored glasses, hav- 
ing, perhaps, first received advice to wear them from medical men, would be 
better without them. Travelling vendors of spectacles are not to be trusted : 
their wares are apt to be recommended as ignorantly and indiscriminately as in 
the times of the " Vicar of Wakefield." 



44 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

If you have to hold the pages of " Harper's Magazine " nearer than fifteen 
inches in order to read it easily, it is probable that you are quite nearsighted. 
If you have to hold it two or three feet away before you see easily, you are 
probably farsighted. In either case, it is very desirable to consult a physician 
before getting a pair of glasses, for a misfit may permanently injure your eyes. 

Never play tricks with the eyes, as squinting or rolling them. 

The eyes are often troublesome when the stomach is out of order. 

Avoid reading or sewing by twilight, or when debilitated by recent illness, 
especially fever. ^ 

Every seamstress ought to have a cutting-out table to place her work on 
such a plane with reference to the line of vision as to make it possible to exer- 
cise a close scrutiny without bending the head or the figure much forward. 

Usually, except for aged persons or chronic invalids, the winter temperature 
in workrooms ought not to exceed 60° or 65°. To sit with impunity in a room 
at a Ipwer temperature, some added clothing will be necessary. The feet of a 
student or seamstress should be kept comfortably warm while tasks are being 
done. Slippers are bad. In winter the temperature of the lower part of the 
room is apt to be 10 ^ or 15° lower than that of the upper. 

It is indispensable, in all forms of labor requiring the exercise of vision or 
minute objects, that the worker should rise from his task now and then, take a 
few deep inspirations with closed mouth, stretch the frame out into the most 
erect posture, throw the arms backward and forward, and, if possible, step to a 
■window or into the open air, if only for a moment. Two desks or tables in 
a room are valuable for a student, — one to stand at, the other to sit at. 

The next subject of discussion was tlie establishment of the office of 
Medical Inspector of Public Schools. It was opened by reading the 
brief of a State law, prepared by Joseph Willard, Esq., of Boston, 
modelled essentially upon the Massachusetts law establishing the 
State Board of Health. It is here printed, not as a measure which 
receives in every point the sanction of the Department of Health, but 
as containing many valuable features. 

Pkoject of a Law Establishing the Office of Medical Inspector 

OF Schools. 

First, He shall be appointed by the head of the Department of Public 
Instruction. 

Second, Term of ofiice three years. 

Third, Must be a physician. 

Fourth, Is expected to devote his entire time to the duties of this office. 

Fifth, Salary three thousand dollars, payable quarterly, plus necessary 
expenses for clerical labor and travel. 

Sixth, He shall take cognizance of the interests of health among the 
eachers and children of the public schools. 

Seventh, He shall make sanitary investigations in respect to schoolhouses 

1 Or in the case of women, by childbirth. 



LAW ESTABLISHING MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS. 45 

and grounds, and to all circumstances connected with the management and 
instruction of schools, which may appear to influence the health of scholars or 
teachers. 

Eighth, He shall make himself acquainted with the means employed in 
other States for preserving the health of the inmates of schools. 

Ninth, He shall seek to trace the origin and mode of extension of epidemic 
or other diseases among inmates of schools, and to point out measures for the 
arrest or prevention of such diseases. 

Tenth, He shall from time to time inform the Department of Public Instruction 
of the results of the aforesaid investigations, and shall suggest to the said depart- 
ment such modifications of the system of instruction and management existing 
in the schools of this State, as, in his opinion, would conduce to the improve- 
ment of the health of teachers and scholars. 

Eleventh, He shall further, in the month of January of every year, present 
to the Department of Public Instruction a written report of his doings and 
investigations in the line of his duty as aforsesaid for the year ending with the 
31st of December next preceding. 

Twelfth, He shall gather, and from time to time shall present to the depart- 
ment, such information, in respect to the interests of the public schools as he 
may deem proper for diffusion among the people. 

The concluding session of the Department, held May 13, was occu- 
pied by accounts of the Philadelphia examinations, and of those insti- 
tuted by Prof. Bowditch; these haye already been spoken of on p. 
86. A paper containing a synopsis of the leading principles in school 
architecture was also read, and occasioned much comment. It is not 
reproduced here. The session adjourned at noon, sine die, after passing 
a vote of thanks to the chairman, Eev. Mr. Brigham. 



SPECIAL PAPERS 

OP Til 12 

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Z It. Hrotkway- XL 'Hie Deal-Mii e Cille;;e at Washin>:t"n. Edward M. Gailaudet— XII. The 
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CoNTKNTS OF NvJiiiKK ElfiiiT. — 1 The Pff diiction ami Dlstrilmtion of Wealth. David A. Wells — II. 
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